


Behind the waves

by yukitsubute



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: M/M, Multi, None - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-08
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-09-15 18:14:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 30,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9249818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yukitsubute/pseuds/yukitsubute





	1. Chapter 1

** Title:  ** Behind the waves   
** Pairing:  ** Aiba Masaki/ Sakurai Sho; Matsumoto Jun/ Ohno Satoshi;   
** Rating:  ** PG-13  
**Warning:** none  
** Summary:  ** Aiba has a special ability – he can see shadows surrounding people who can’t get rid of their past and what had happened to them and the people they once loved. As psychologist it’s Aiba’s duty to help them getting rid of their bad experiences (and their shadows) to start a new life.   
  
  
  
Aiba walked down the small path to the beach. It was a sunny and warm day. Okay, it always was warm on the small island, but there were small differences between summer and winter. It wasn’t so hot right now, but the rainy season was also over. Maybe it would get over 40 degree Celsius. For now Aiba enjoyed the sun on his skin. It was just right to lie down in the sun to get a little tanned, but not sunburnt.   
  
Aiba lay down on the towel he had placed there some hours ago. He still had some time till he needed to go back to work.  It was nice to work at home. Aiba had time to use his private beach almost every day, and he didn’t need to go out often. It was totally the life Aiba had imagined.   
  
One year ago Aiba had decided to move from Tokyo to this island. He had searched months till he had found this small house. It was perfect – far away from town and just two neighbours, who weren’t here often, because they just spent their weekend here. Aiba hated the mainland, he hated it being surrounded by people. He just went to town when it was totally necessary and he needed to buy something.   
  
Aiba went shopping once a week. He tried to plant some fruits and vegetables in his own garden, and for his surprise that worked out perfectly. Sometimes Aiba even went fishing.   
  
Aiba looked at the sky. Some small clouds danced around the sun and some puffy light grey ones hovered over the horizon. Maybe it would rain soon. Aiba listened to the waves, which curled around the stones. Far away he could hear the seagulls, probably following a fisher boat. The wind brushed through the trees next to Aiba’s house. He could hear his cat strolling over the terrace. There were no voices, no cars, no hectic around him. He loved the nature and its voices around him. Aiba didn’t need any humans around him, he was happiest when he was alone.   
  
Aiba heard his mobile ringing. He grunted. He didn’t want anyone to disturb him. He had some time till his customer would visit him, and he needed all his strength for this meeting. But maybe it was someone who wanted his service. And Aiba needed money.   
  
He stood up and grabbed his phone. “Aiba Masaki,” he said.   
  
“Hello, here’s Sakurai Sho. I got your number from Satoshi-kun,” a man on the other side said.   
  
“What can I do for you?” Aiba asked.   
  
“Do you have time for me? I think I have a problem, and I need help,” Sho said.   
  
Aiba looked at his calendar. Aiba was always rather exhausted after sessions, and he’d have one customer today and two tomorrow. More than two hours per day weren’t possible for Aiba. He didn’t have enough strength to take more than that. “How about the day after tomorrow?” He finally suggested.   
  
“Perfect,” Sho replied. “Satoshi-kun told me where you live. I think I find your place easily.”   
  
“I guess Satoshi-kun told you about my price?” Aiba asked.   
  
“Yes, I am perfectly informed.” Sho’s voice sounded sad and depressive. Aiba hoped that it wasn’t what Aiba thought about. “Thank you, Aiba-san.”   
  
“No problem at all, till then Sakurai-san.” Aiba hung up. He scribbled Sho’s name on the calendar and walked to his bedroom to change his clothes for the meeting.   
  
He slipped into his green t-shirt and the short jeans. Aiba felt a slight headache approaching. His guest was close, he could already feel him. Satoshi must have been right in front of his house.   
  
“Why are you going there, Satoshi-chan? You don’t believe that he can help you, so why are you still going there? You don’t want to be there,” Aiba heard a voice saying.   
  
A moment later Aiba heard a knock on his door. He went into the kitchen to prepare to cups of tea for them. “Come in, Satoshi, it’s open.”   
  
Satoshi came up to Aiba’s kitchen. He was a young, tanned man. He was rather thin, but not untrained. Aiba had got to know him, when he had moved here. Aiba’s friend told him about Ohno, who had his own boat.  Aiba had wanted to learn boat driving, and Satoshi had helped him – he was a professional fisherman after all. Aiba had immediately recognized that something was wrong with Satoshi – or better – that someone was with Satoshi, who shouldn’t be.   
  
“Sit down.” Aiba smiled at him.   
  
“Thank you, Masaki.” Ohno took place at the small table. He had the hands crossed in front of his body. He looked pale, even though he was tanned.   
  
“You look like you didn’t sleep much?” Aiba placed the cups on the table and sat down towards Satoshi.   
  
“I had a nightmare,” Satoshi said.   
  
Aiba nodded. He had already guessed something like that. Next to Satoshi stood a shadow, which followed him, just that Satoshi didn’t know about it.   
  
“What where the dreams about?” Aiba wanted to know. Aiba was a specialist for psychologic diseases because of traumatized happenings like death cases. He preferred diseases because of death, because on the one hand it was his master thesis and on the other hand there was this special ability he had. He could see the shadows of the dead. Not every dead person remained on earth, but some couldn’t leave the world to go to the next place. Mostly the shadows stayed here because someone alive couldn’t give up on them. Aiba tried to help them finding a way to live with their loss.   
  
It was the main reason Aiba had fled from town. He couldn’t bear the voices of all the shadows around him. He wasn’t able to listen to all these stories anymore. And the shadows took Aiba’s energy to get stronger, to be able to tell him their story. Now Aiba had just a few patients and just a few shadows he had to bear with.   
  
“Tell him that this all nonsense. He needs to forget about everything. He needs to let me go.” The shadow hovered around Satoshi. It brushed over Satoshi’s cheek. “My Satoshi. Please forgive me.”   
  
“I was on that road again,” Satoshi said.   
  
Aiba mostly just listened. He never told the patients that he was able to see shadows. They wouldn’t have believed him and in the end they needed to let go on their own, and not with the help of the shadows. They needed to find their own way, and Aiba was just there to give them pushes to the right way.   
  
“Ask him about the daffodils. There must have been flowers on the field right next to the road,” the shadow said.   
  
“Where there flowers in your dream?” Aiba asked. He left out that the shadow talked about daffodils.   
  
Satoshi didn’t look at him. He seemed to think about Aiba’s question. “Yes,” he started. “I think there were daffodils next to the road.”   
  
“Do they mean something for you?” Aiba wanted to know.   
  
“Why did you know about the flowers?” Ohno asked him.   
  
Aiba was already used to such questions. Due the years he had learnt to find reasons why he asked something he actually couldn’t know. Mostly he found psychologic reasons for asking something. “Flowers often appear in dreams. It’s something calming in nightmares. Something blooms – that means that there is life, there is hope and light. At least if they weren’t rotten.”   
  
“No.” Satoshi looked up.   
  
“No?” Aiba looked at him.   
  
Satoshi sighed. He looked desperate and nervous. Maybe now Aiba could break down another wall Satoshi had built around himself. Satoshi had visited Aiba for the first time when he had come to the island, but he searched for his help some months ago. They hardly made any step forward. Aiba didn’t even know what exactly had happened to Satoshi or who his shadow was. Satoshi had said that a friend forced him to come here. When Aiba had seen Satoshi’s scars on his arm, he knew he wanted to help him. He had the slight feeling that Satoshi had major problems in his life.   
  
Aiba just knew that Satoshi had lost someone precious, but he had no idea whom. The first times Satoshi hadn’t talked much, and even now after some months, Satoshi wasn’t talking much. Now Satoshi slowly started to open up to him, and at least he talked about his nightmares. It was a big step forward for them. And Aiba could feel Satoshi’s wall breaking down step by step. He hoped that he’d break through this soon.   
  
Ohno nibbled on his lower lip nervously. He seemed absent-minded. “It was the road everything happened.”   
  
“What happened there?” Aiba asked carefully.   
  
Satoshi sat there like a picture of misery. His breath got a little faster and his eyes looked around nervously.   
  
“It was the accident. I died there,” the shadow said.   
  
“I had an accident there. It was five years ago,” Satoshi murmured. Was he about to start crying? Satoshi never showed a lot of emotions, but now Aiba had the feeling that he was about to burst.   
  
“What happened at that accident?”   
  
Satoshi looked up at him. “I can’t…talk about it.” Some tears were running down Satoshi’s cheek. Aiba handed him a tissue. He gave Satoshi some minutes to calm down.   
  
“Oh-chan, it wasn’t your fault. It was heavy raining on that day.” The shadow’s voice was sad. It changed place to Satoshi’s right side.   
  
“How did the road look like?” Aiba asked.   
  
Satoshi rubbed his face. He looked up at Aiba. “It was raining. The raindrops fell on the flowers. I stood there and the water was running down my body. I shivered. It was cold, even though it was summer. I was soaking wet.”   
  
“What do you feel right at that moment?” Aiba tried to read Satoshi’s face, but that was pretty hard. Satoshi never let anyone see his real emotions. There were just a few moments when Satoshi’s wall broke down.   
  
“Cold. Alone. Numb,” Satoshi answered.   
  
Aiba nodded. “Do you like daffodils?”   
  
Satoshi shook his head. “I hate them and their smell.”   
  
“Oh, Oh-chan…they were once our favourite flowers. How can you say something like that?” The shadow whispered.   
  
Aiba leaned back. “Do you think you can do an exercise at home?” He wanted to know.   
  
“What exercise?” Satoshi looked at him.   
  
“Plant daffodils in your garden.” Aiba smiled. “I am sure Jun will help you doing this.”   
  
“No. I don’t know…” Satoshi tilted his head from left to right. He seemed torn.   
  
“Just try it,” Aiba said. “And tell me about it next time.”   
  
“Okay,” Satoshi nodded. “I will try.” Satoshi stood up. “Thanks Aiba-chan.” He handed Aiba the money with a good amount of cumshaw.   
  
Aiba followed him to the door. “You are welcome, Satoshi. But please take the cumshaw. I see you as a friend of mine.”   
  
Satoshi curled his lips into the first smile he had since he came here. “By the way, did Sho-kun call you?”   
  
Aiba nodded. “Yes. He’ll come here the day after tomorrow. Who is he?”   
  
“He is a friend of mine. He had a hard time, but I guess he’ll tell you about it,” Satoshi explained.   
  
Aiba smiled. “I am curious.” He could see the shadow next to Satoshi clinging onto his arm.   
  
“Oh, by the way,” Satoshi raised his arm. “I’ll make a barbeque on Monday, maybe you want to come too?” He smiled. “Jun asked me to ask you to come. We’ll cook together.”   
  
“How many people will come?” Aiba asked. He strictly avoided bigger groups of people. It wasn’t only the shadows talking with him, but also that the shadows took all his energy to get in contact with him. Aiba felt always weak when a shadow was around. It had happened various times that Aiba fainted when too many shadows were around. Now he also felt like he hadn’t slept for hours.   
  
“It’ll be me, Jun, Nino and Sho,” Satoshi said.   
  
Aiba wasn’t sure if he should join this. It would be at least two shadows there and Aiba wasn’t sure if there wouldn’t be more. “I am not sure about it.”   
  
“Oh come on, Aiba-chan. Please come. You help me so much, I really want you to come,” Satoshi said.   
  
“Okay, I will come.” Aiba gave in. Maybe a social life wasn’t that bad at all.

 


	2. Chapter 2

** Title:  ** Behind the waves    
** Pairing:  ** Aiba Masaki/ Sakurai Sho; Matsumoto Jun/ Ohno Satoshi;    
** Rating:  ** PG-13  
 **Warning:** none   
** Summary:  ** Aiba has a special ability – he can see shadows surrounding people who can’t get rid of their past and what had happened to them and the people they once loved. As psychologist it’s Aiba’s duty to help them getting rid of their bad experiences (and their shadows) to start a new life. 

  
Aiba cut the cucumber and some tomatoes. He put everything in a big bowl and mixed it with a spicy vinegar oil mixture. Aiba loved salad, especially the one from his own garden. It was something he had missed when he had lived in Tokyo.    
  
When Satoshi had gone two hours ago Aiba had gone to bed immediately. When the shadow had been out of his house, he had felt like ten pounds had disappeared from his shoulder. His limbs had felt numb and tired and his eyes got heavy. He had fallen asleep immediately.    
  
Aiba looked out of the window. His cat lay there, coiled up in the sun. She enjoyed the lazy day in the warmth. Sometimes she strayed around for days, but Aiba didn’t care. He let her do like she wanted to. He didn’t want to jail his pet. In the end she could go wherever she wanted to, she wasn’t cursed, like Aiba was. Sometimes she got something to eat from the neighbours far away, but she always came back to him. She loved human contact, and Aiba was glad that at least one of his family – and yes, he called Akira, the cat, as his family – was able to have a social life.    
  
The cat seemed to recognize Aiba looking at her, because she stretched and looked up at him. Smoothly she stood up and jumped on the window sill. “Akira-chan, are you hungry?” Aiba stoked her soft fur. She purred and patted with her head against Aiba’s hand to get more attention from Aiba.    
  
“Here.” Aiba placed a small cup with some tuna on the sill. Akira smelled at it before she started eating it slowly. She purred while she licked over the small pieces of fish and hungrily swallowed them.    
  
Aiba turned his attention back to his own food. He thought about the barbeque and he was still afraid that it had been a bad idea to agree going there. Last time he had joined a party he had fainted. There had been several guests with shadows and they had taken all of Aiba’s strength, till he hadn’t been able to keep a clear mind. And Aiba was afraid to be hard-pressed to explain things further. He had never told anyone – except one person - about his ability – or his curse how he called it.    
  
“Do you think I need a social life?” Aiba looked at Akira.    
  
The cat licked over her snout. She had her eyes almost closed and purred. She seemed to be content and full after her lunch. “You are right, I need to feel comfortable, and I never do when I am in a group of people.” Aiba sighed. He’d stay a loner till the end of his days. Just the animals gave him the feeling of being loved. “Maybe I’ll go to the pet shop. What do you think? Maybe I get you a doggy-brother.”    
  
Akira jumped down from the sill into the kitchen and brushed around Aiba’s legs. “I take this as a yes, Akira.” Aiba smiled.    
  
~~~   
  
Aiba placed a plate with cookies and a cup of strawberries on the table. He always did this when he had a new patient. It should make them feel comfortable at his place. Aiba had learned that they started talking more freely when they felt good and when they had some sweets or fruits to eat. It was stressful to talk about secrets with a stranger and Aiba wanted them to feel good.    
  
Aiba opened the door when he heard someone knocking. He didn’t know what he had expected from this new patient, but when he looked at him, his heart stopped beating for a second. Aiba had never seen such mesmerizing eyes before.    
  
“Hello, I am Sakurai Sho. We phoned two days ago.”    
  
“Oh yes, sure, come in,” Aiba said. He smiled at the stranger, and hoped that the other hadn’t recognized his short black out. Aiba guided Sho to his living room and offered him the place at his dining table.    
  
“Do you want some tea or coffee?”    
  
Sho sat at the table. Aiba tried to ignore the small shadow which hid behind Sho’s legs. It looked at Aiba from time to time, but mostly it seemed to be afraid. Aiba could feel the deep sorrow and the pain coming from the shadow. And it was afraid. Aiba had a guess that this wasn’t an adult shadow, and this made everything much more difficult for him and of course for Sho.    
  
The shadow was strong, and it would take a lot of strength from Aiba. He knew he’d be exhausted afterwards, and he was afraid about the truth about this shadow.    
  
“A cup of tea would be nice,” Sho said. He rubbed his hands on his jeans, so he definitely was nervous about this.    
  
Aiba placed the cups on the table and sat down. “Tell me about you, Sho-san.” Aiba looked at the other closely. He wanted to read his body language, but there was hardly anything he could see in there. Sho seemed to hide behind a wall, he was perfectly aware of hiding his feelings somewhere. Aiba loved new challenges, and that’d be a new one.    
  
“I live in town my whole life long. I am Satoshi’s friend since childhood. He told me about your job, and at some point he forced me to call you,” Sho said.    
  
“You aren’t here because you want to, but because someone forced you?” Aiba asked. He had already thought about something like this. Even though he didn’t know Sho, he could already tell the other wasn’t the one asking for help easily. And Aiba knew it would become almost impossible to help Sho if he wasn’t willing to change something in his life on his own and not because someone told him to do so.    
  
“No, it’s not like this.” Sho shook his head. “I am just … I don’t know … a little control freak … I love to know with whom I am talking, especially when it’s about private things. And no matter where I searched for your name, I couldn’t find anything about you. Are you a real doctor, or just a fraud?”    
  
Aiba smiled at him. “I am a doctor, but you won’t find anything about me in the internet or somewhere else.”    
  
Sho took a sip of his tea and licked over his lips afterwards. “Why?”    
  
“Because I avoid public and I don’t write any professional articles. You can say I live rather in seclusion. It’s the path I chose,” Aiba explained.    
  
Sho leaned a little forward. “And how can I be sure that you don’t lie to me and you just take my money without the knowledge of being a psychologist?”    
  
Aiba crossed his arms. He hated such questions and he hated the arrogance the other had towards him. It was Sho who had called him after all. He had heard this question often during the years, and he absolutely didn’t care about being friendly anymore. At the beginning of his career he often felt nervous or insecure about what to answer, but now the feeling of explaining everything to his patients had gone. “You know Sho-san, you can go if you don’t want to be here. I didn’t force you to come here. It was you calling me, and not opposite.”    
  
Sho stared at him and for a moment they kept silent. It was like Sho was trying to read Aiba’s mind with staring at him. “Where did you study?”    
  
“In Tokyo,” Aiba answered.    
  
Sho nodded. “Why did you come here to this almost deserted island out in nowhere?”    
“Why do you live here?” Aiba returned the question.    
  
Sho’s eyes were sparkling with mistrust. But there was also something else in his eyes. “He mistrusts everyone. He doesn’t like people, except the few friends he has. He was forced to come back here.” The tiny shadow peeked over the table directly at Aiba. Sometimes Aiba wished that he would be able to see the shadow’s faces. Because of the voice it had to be a girl – a young girl, but Aiba could only guess, because everything he was able to see was black and grey parts.    
  
“I was born here,” Sho replied.    
  
“And you always stayed here,” Aiba wanted to know.    
  
“No, he fled here,” the shadow hooked in.    
  
“No, I studied economics in Tokyo, but because of my family I decided to come back.” Sho took a cookie from the plate and stared at it for a moment before he took a bite. “But I asked you first, Aiba-san.”    
  
Aiba didn’t like the way this talk was leading to, but he decided to go with it. “I was born in Tokyo, but I didn’t want to live in such a big town anymore. I enjoy my own house with the small garden and the sea around me.” Aiba looked outside. He saw some waves curling at the beach and the sun hid behind a big white, puffy cloud.    
  
“It’s strange that people flee to a place like this when they can be at a place like Tokyo,” Sho said.    
  
Aiba could understand Sho’s thought. When there wouldn’t have been those shadows, Aiba would have probably stayed there, but he got used to this life, and now he didn’t want to change anything anymore. “I always loved nature and I don’t like crowded places much, so I am pretty happy here.” Aiba looked directly at Sho. “But why do you live here? You seem so unhappy here.”    
  
Sho looked down at his cup. First he didn’t say anything and just nibbled on his lower lip nervously. “I … had some troubles.”    
  
“What kind of troubles?” Aiba wanted to know.    
  
Sho looked up. His eyes were full of sorrow and pain. Aiba wasn’t sure if he would be able to break through Sho’s walls. There was a massive wall surrounding him, and he wasn’t used to open up to someone. Aiba knew he needed to be careful, because otherwise he’d never make Sho talk about his life. “Various.” Sho shrugged.    
  
Aiba pushed the strawberries closer to Sho. “Strawberry?”    
  
“Do you want to buy me?” Sho had a small smile curling around his lips.    
  
“No, I just want to make you feel comfortable,” Aiba replied.    
  
“As if I would … at a so called psychologist,” Sho answered sadly.    
  
Aiba took a sip of his tea, like he always did when he was about to lose his nerves. It was senseless to yell at Sho and to shake him was probably also not the best way to get through him. Sho had an attitude and a kind of gesture Aiba didn’t like.    
  
“Sho-san, if you don’t want any help from me, then please leave my place. I have better things to do than listening to your assaults that I am a fraud. You block every question and you made clear that you don’t want to talk with me about whatever burdens you.” Aiba was calm. He tried his best to supress the tremble in his voice.    
Sho’s hand wandered over the cup. He took one strawberry without looking at Aiba. He didn’t say something, but it made Aiba smile. It was the reaction he had awaited. There was a small crack in the wall, even though it wasn’t even big enough to let some dust through it, but it was there. “Good. So tell me about your job here.”    
  
Sho grinned. “You’d never guess.”    
  
Aiba tilted his head. “You said you studied economics, so I guess you work in a bank?”    
  
“I worked there back in Tokyo, yes. But I had to change my job when I came back here. “I work in a pet shop now.”    
  
Aiba blinked. He really didn’t think about a job like this. Sho seemed so strict, more like a lawyer or an insurance seller. “Wow, I really wouldn’t have guessed that.”    
  
“It’s not easy to find a job here, and in the end banker aren’t really needed here,” Sho explained.    
  
Aiba nodded. “I understand, but are you happy here, Sho-san?”    
  
Sho took his time to reply. “I am a little bit torn. I’d never thought that I’d like it to be here, but I start enjoying my time. I never wanted to work here, but now I get used to it.”    
  
“What was your dream?” Aiba asked.    
  
Sho bit in one cookie. Aiba could see that he fought about to answer or to keep quiet. “I always wanted to work in the real estate industry;” Sho finally explained. “But I am not sad about being here to work in the pet shop.”    
  
“Why do you say that every time?” Aiba asked.    
  
“What?” Sho stared at him, his cheeks flushed a little like he felt caught.    
  
“Every sentence of yours ends with ‘I am not sad to be here’. Why do you emphasise this every time?”    
  
Sho pulled on his shirt nervously. He blushed. “I don’t know.” His voice was almost silent. “I didn’t realize that I say that.”    
  
“Why did you come back?” Aiba asked. Aiba hoped that the other wouldn’t push him away because of this question, he already guessed that the shadow had been a big part of this decision.    
  
“My family is here, and I wanted to support my father with his business.” Sho lied. Even a non-psychologist would have seen this.    
  
And the shadow reinforced Aiba in his feeling. “Liar!” It shouted. “You came back because you fled from Tokyo. Because of me, you idiot!”    
  
Children were the most honest shadows. Their words were sometimes harsh, and when they would have been alive, they would have got scolded for it, but Aiba liked that. They told him the truth and spoke out the feelings most of the adult buried deep inside them. “Your father owns the pet shop?”   
  
“Yes, it is his business. I help him with the book keeping,” Sho said.    
  
“If everything is okay, why are you here, Sho-san? What do you want from me?” Aiba asked.    
  
Sho leaned back against the chair. He had his hands now crossed. There was a dark glance in his eyes. Aiba didn’t like that. The small moment he had broken through him was gone. There was the cold and arrogant Sho-san. “My mother wants me to come here. And I promised to go. I don’t have any problems Aiba-san. So, it would be nice if we can meet once a week, talk with each other about the weather or what else, I pay you and go home again. I am happy, my mom is happy, and you get your money for doing nothing. It’s really easy.”    
  
Actually Aiba refused such suggestions and he would have sent him away without thinking about the offer, but Sho caught his attention and his motivation. He wanted to get to the real Sho, which was somewhere behind this man with the iron wall. Of course it was because of the shadow, but also because of this arrogance which wasn’t natural, it was a kind of self-defence, and Aiba wanted to know the whole story behind this. Sho could hide behind everything with his words, but he couldn’t change the sparkle in his eyes – this sad and traumatized look. “It’s okay, but next time you bring food along,” Aiba said.    
  
Sho smiled at him. “Perfect.” 

 

**A/N:** Wow, thanks for all the wonderful comments on the first chapter <3 I was really surprised and totally happy.  
So what do you think about that second one? What's the story of Sho's shadow?  
This chapter was just Sakuraiba interaction, but Juntoshi will come, I promise this to you. <3  
  



	3. Chapter 3

** Title:  ** Behind the waves    
** Pairing:  ** Aiba Masaki/ Sakurai Sho; Matsumoto Jun/ Ohno Satoshi;    
** Rating:  ** PG-13  
 **Warning:** none   
** Summary:  ** Aiba has a special ability – he can see shadows surrounding people who can’t get rid of their past and what had happened to them and the people they once loved. As psychologist it’s Aiba’s duty to help them getting rid of their bad experiences (and their shadows) to start a new life. 

Aiba walked down the street. It was the day a week Aiba hated most: he had to go to make his weekly shopping. He needed some things to eat and he wanted to buy some stuff for Ohno’s party. And there was the idea to get himself a dog, so he wanted to make a stop at the pet shop.    
  
An old man smiled at him when he entered the pet shop. “Hello, can I help you?”    
  
That must have been Sho’s father. They looked similar, especially their smile was almost same. “I search for a dog.”    
  
The man came across the counter. “We have two young dogs here at the moment, one is already reserved for a family, but one is still free. It’s still a baby dog, so you really need a lot of time to take of her.”    
  
“Where did you get her from?” Aiba wanted to know.    
  
The man walked up to the small door, which led to the small garden at the backside. “We found her some days ago. I think she is a baby from a straying dog. Her parents probably died, and she sat at the street, totally ravenous and weak. But now she is doing well. She got stronger and she already gained weight.”    
  
They walked to the garden. There were two dogs lying in the shadow of a big tree. Aiba had the feeling to be in a different world. Some birds were singing and he had the feeling that he had entered something like paradise. Aiba looked at the balcony on the other side of the garden. He saw Sho standing there, looking down at him. He looked annoyed, but Aiba already counted with something like that.    
  
“This is Haro. We guess that she is a Shiba Inu, but we don’t know for sure,” the man explained.    
  
Aiba knelt down and stretched his arm. Haro opened her eyes and looked at him curiously. She stood up and sneaked up to Aiba, her head lowered like she was afraid of him. She smelled on Aiba’s hand before she started wiggling her tail slowly. Haro made some steps forward to press her head against Aiba’s hand.    
  
“She likes you.” The man smiled at Aiba.    
  
Aiba stroked over the dogs neck. “I like her too, I totally want to take her with me, if that’s okay, of course.”    
  
The man nodded. “We are glad that she’ll have a good place to live from now on.” He took the leash and pulled it around Haro’s neck. “Take care of her.”    
  
Aiba blinked. “You don’t want to know if I can really care about her?”    
  
The man smiled at him while he handed him the leash. “I know you Aiba-san.” He stepped back into the room and Aiba followed him. “You are the psychologist my son visits.”    
  
Aiba could hear almost silent footsteps at the outside. He was sure that someone was listening to them, and he could already imagine who it was. “Ah, Sakurai-san, yes. Now I see the similarity between the both of you.”    
  
“He is my son, yes,” the man said. He stepped behind the counter to write the bill. “And? How is it with him?” He wanted to sound random, but failed terribly with it.    
  
Even though Aiba could understand a fathers worry and interest, but Sho was his patient and he had to keep quiet about everything he knew about Sho, and in the end it wasn’t that much till now. “You know, Sakurai-san, I never talk about my patients and their issues. I get to know the most private things, and I am forced to keep it as a secret, and I take this seriously.”    
  
“Of course, of course, I totally understand that,” the man immediately said. “We are just curious, because he never wanted any help but now…” The man turned when he saw Sho coming into the room.    
  
“Hello Aiba-san,” Sho’s eyes were dark. He didn’t seem happy that Aiba had visited the shop.    
  
“Sakurai-san,” Aiba bowed. “I decided to take myself a companion. You know I live pretty alone outside there, and I love dogs, so here I am.” Aiba pulled the leash up.    
  
The father opened the cash when Aiba handed him the money. “Oh I need money to change. “I am back in a minute.”    
  
Sho and Aiba were alone in the room and it felt uncomfortable for Aiba. “What are you doing here?” Sho asked. “I told you that I am not interested in working with you. We have an agreement.”    
  
Aiba somehow knew that Sho would say this to him. He wasn’t that difficult to read. “Sho-san, I am here to buy a dog. I am not here to investigate anything. I am hardly in town because I don’t like humans at all, that’s why I need an animal at my side.”    
  
Aiba hid a smile when he saw Sho’s astonished face. It often happened when he told the people that he didn’t like humans at all.    
  
“Take care of Haro, she is a good dog,” Sho just said when his father came back to the room and handed Aiba the change.    
  
“I will,” Aiba said. “Oh, and I need some extra stuff, sorry, I forgot about that.” Aiba walked around to take a basket for Haro, some food, a second leash and some toys. He’d leave a lot of money here today but it was worth it. “So, I guess I have everything now.” Aiba payed the rest and thanked them before he left the shop.    
  
Sho looked intensely at Aiba. He could feel Sho’s eyes resting on him. Aiba got now more curious about the truth behind Sho’s arrogant way of acting. There was something different behind these eyes, something broken, something Sho tried hiding with all might. And Aiba wanted to break this wall down.    
  
~~~   
  
Aiba sat on his terrace with a big cup of tea and some chocolate cookies. He felt totally spent. Haro sat next to him and looked up from time to time. Akira walked from left to right and back. She stared at them probably a little bit afraid, but also curious. “This is our new mate, Akira,” Aiba said. The cat came up to him, like she understood what Aiba wanted to tell him. She walked up to Haro and smelled at the dog’s snout before she turned to walk to the big tree on the right side. She seemed totally unimpressed and disinterested.    
  
Aiba opened the leash and let Haro run freely. “Don’t run away,” he said. Haro sniffed around till she found a nice place to lie down. She grunted before she closed her eyes and dozed off.    
  
Aiba could feel his own tiredness overwhelming him. He had seen various shadows in town and they all tried taking his energy to communicate with him. He felt like he didn’t sleep for ages. All the pain he could feel coming from various shadows, all the desperation they carried inside and all the people who were still alive, burdened because they lost someone important and they couldn’t let go.    
  
Aiba had seen Sho’s shadow watching them when he was at the pet shop’s garden. He wanted to know who it was, and what had happened to it, and why Sho behaved like he did at the moment. That cold glance in his eyes, this strange arrogant way of acting, this wasn’t natural. Aiba had a good sense for people, and he could feel that Sho once had been totally different.    
  
Aiba took a second cookie. Food always helped him to gain some power when the shadows pulled almost everything out of him.    
  
He needed to prepare some salads for the invitation on the next day. Aiba was curious if he’d meet Sho there. Ohno told him, that Sho would come, but he wasn’t hundred percent sure about it. Aiba wanted to know what Sho would say if he came there. Especially after Aiba told him, that he didn’t like humans at all.    
  
And Aiba was curious to get to know Jun. Ohno had told a lot about him, but Aiba had never met him before. He seemed to be a great help for Ohno, and that was the most important thing.    
  
Aiba was just afraid to meet two shadows at once. He wasn’t sure how long he’d be able to stay. Last time he had been with two shadows in a room on purpose, he had fainted after two hours. And it was always hard to find an explanation why this happened to him without telling the people the truth.    
  
~~~   
  
Aiba placed the bags with the food in his bicycle basket. He had prepared two bowls of salad – one potato salad and one with cucumber and tomatoes. And he had baked a strawberry-yoghurt cake – just in case the shadows pulled too much strength out of him.    
  
“Do you want to come along, Haro?” Aiba asked his dog, which sat at the entrance, staring at Aiba, his tail wiggling slowly. Haro came up to him and barked. “I take this as a yes,” Aiba laughed. He pulled the leash around Haro’s neck and sat on his bicycle.    
  
It was a warm and sunny day and Aiba enjoyed the 30 minutes he needed to get to Ohno’s place. Small waves curled at the beach right next to the street and it was hardly anyone around at that hour. In front of Ohno’s house he could already hear some voices on the other side.    
  
Aiba took his bags and walked around the house. He was a little afraid and shy to get together with a new group of people. He hoped that his friend Nino would be there already. He walked around the corner, but there was no Nino around.    
  
“Oh, Aiba-san, come here.” Ohno smiled at him. He guided him to the table. “You already know Sho-kun,” Ohno said and pointed at Sho on the other side. “And this is Jun.” Ohno took the hand of the man next to him. Ohno smiled.    
  
Aiba greeted them. He smiled when he saw Ohno looking at Jun lovingly. It was nice to see the other happy. And Aiba was happy there was no shadow around Jun – it already cost him enough strength to fight against Sho and Ohno’s shadow.    
  
They stood right next to Ohno and Sho and talked about weird things Aiba didn’t understand properly. Aiba shook his head. He tried to get distracted from the shadows voices. “What about Nino? Will he come?” Aiba asked.    
  
Aiba knew Nino since childhood. They went to school together and even studied the same at university. In the dormitory they shared a room together. While Aiba studied psychology Nino studied medicine. Because of Nino Aiba had come to this island. He was the one searching a calm place for Aiba.    
  
Nino was the only one Aiba called friend in his life. He was the only one Aiba trusted, and he was the only one who knew about Aiba’s ability or curse – like Aiba called it from time to time.    
  
“He’s on the way. He was on mainland, because of a complicated surgery, but he’ll be here soon,” Jun said. “Come and sit down,” Jun added. “I take your food to put it in the fridge.”    
  
Jun was one of Nino’s friends from hospital. They worked together in the island’s hospital. Nino was born on this island, but moved when he was still a child. After his study he came back to this island.    
  
Aiba sat next to Sho, who had just looked at him till now. “I see Haro seems to like you,” Sho finally said.    
  
Aiba looked at Haro next to his right leg. Aiba stroked over the dog’s head. “I hope so.”    
  
“Why are you here when you hate humans?” Aiba blinked. Sho was pretty direct. And Aiba hated his arrogant attitude, but in the end he didn’t care about Sho’s questions.    
  
“I have a few friends, Sho-san. But I choose my friends carefully. And believe me, the people I call ‘friend’ are real friends for me,” Aiba answered.    
  
“He’s so arrogant. Papa, why did you change that much? I want to see you smile again,” Sho’s shadow suddenly said.    
  
Aiba swallowed. Papa? Was Sho the shadow’s father? What had happened to this shadow?    
  
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” it was Nino’s voice right next to Aiba.    
  
Aiba turned. “Of course, there are ghosts everywhere.” The best thing about talking with Nino was that they could openly talk about Aiba’s ability, because no one believed that it was the truth.    
  
Nino sat next to Aiba and Aiba felt immediately relaxed. Nino had something calm and supportive that made Aiba feeling safe.    
  
“I wondered why a loner like Aiba-san comes to this party?” Sho said.    
  
Aiba felt anger rising in him. He had enough from Sho’s teasing.    
  
“As far as I know you aren’t really social on your own? Since you came back from Tokyo you avoid every contact with others. You visit Oh-chan sometimes, but the rest of your time?” Nino leaned a little forward to stare at Sho.    
  
Touché … Aiba smiled. Sometimes he just wanted to hug Nino for his honesty.    
  
Sho didn’t say anything. He just glanced at Nino before he looked at Aiba intensely.    
  
“We’ll grill some fish and steaks.” Jun came back to the terrace. He placed the fresh meat and fish next to the barbeque grill. “Do you have any preferences Aiba-san?”    
  
“Please leave the suffix, I am Masaki, or Aiba.” He smiled. “And I don’t have any preferences. I eat everything.”    
  
Jun bowed a bit. “Jun. I am just Jun,” he replied.    
  
“I also have some sea fruit,” Ohno came outside with another plate. “Just in case someone likes that too.”    
  
“Yes, especially you, right?” Jun laughed.    
  
Ohno just shrugged. “Yes, for example.”    
  
They both laughed. Maybe it was a good idea to come here this afternoon.     
  
Aiba loved the smell of fresh grilled meat. He could feel the hunger burning in his stomach. Aiba looked at Ohno who turned the meat on the barbeque swiftly. The shadow stood between Ohno and Jun. like it tried to avoid them staying together.    
  
“How long do you live here?” Sho asked Aiba out of the blue.    
  
“Half a year now,” Aiba answered.    
  
“Do you like it?” Sho wanted to know.    
  
Nino looked at Aiba before he stood up and excused. Aiba had told Nino that Sho was his new patient and now he wanted to give Aiba the chance to find a connection to Sho.    
  
“I came here because I wanted to, so yes, I enjoy it pretty much here,” Aiba said. “But you don’t seem to be happy here?”    
  
Sho smiled sadly. “It’s okay here.”    
  
Sho’s shadow rushed from left to right. “No, it’s not like this. You hate it here. You left everything back in Tokyo, even your laugh and your old self.”    
  
“Why do you know this group here?” Sho asked. It was the first time he didn’t look at Aiba adversely.    
  
“Nino is my best friend since school. He works here with Jun and that’s how I get to know Ohno and Jun. And in the end it was Nino who brought me here,” Aiba explained. “And you Sho-san?” He wanted to know.    
  
Sho looked at Ohno and Jun. “Jun’s my little brother. And since he and Ohno are together, I know Ohno. And as you said, Nino is Jun’s colleague.”    
  
Jun and Sho were brothers? Aba looked at them. They were so different and they didn’t even look like each other, but there was a strange glance in their eyes, which was same. They had a strong will – both of them. “I didn’t know that,” Aiba said.    
  
“We’re pretty different, and we had quite a hard time in past, but we settled everything and now we get along pretty well,” Sho said.    
  
“As long as you stop your horrible father like way of acting, you are okay.” Jun came up to them and placed some bottles of beer on the table.    
  
Sho’s bonds and his reasons for being the way he was got more and more interesting for Aiba. He definitely wouldn’t just meet up with Sho to satisfy Sho’s parents. He’d get to know the truth about Sho.

 

**A/N:** Sorry for the late update, I was on holiday :). So here I am with a new chapter.  
So, what's with Sho's shadow?  
And finally Aiba has a new friend :P Haro will be a big part of the story :D


	4. Chapter 4

** Title:  ** Behind the waves    
** Pairing:  ** Aiba Masaki/ Sakurai Sho; Matsumoto Jun/ Ohno Satoshi;    
** Rating:  ** PG-13  
 **Warning:** none   
** Summary:  ** Aiba has a special ability – he can see shadows surrounding people who can’t get rid of their past and what had happened to them and the people they once loved. As psychologist it’s Aiba’s duty to help them getting rid of their bad experiences (and their shadows) to start a new life. 

 

Aiba could feel Haro shifting between his legs. Aiba had no evidence – but he was sure that animals were able to feel the shadows around them. Sho’s shadow knelt next to Haro, stroking the dog’s neck.    
  
“You look pale, Masaki?” Aiba got pulled out of his thoughts. Jun smiled at him.    
  
“I just didn’t sleep well,” Aiba replied.    
  
“You should watch out that you get enough sleep for your health,” Jun said, earning a playful smack from Ohno.    
  
“You are not the doctor,” Ohno said. “At least not today,” he added.    
  
“I am okay, really,” Aiba said again, even though he wasn’t. The shadow next to Haro pulled on Aiba’s energy and Ohno’s shadow had taken place right next to Aiba, pulling on his arm to get his attention. Aiba could feel the power floating out of his body. “Is it okay to take a piece of bread, even though we aren’t yet eating?” Aiba asked.    
  
Food always made him feel better and he hoped it would help here. “I am sorry to ask this, but I didn’t eat anything today and maybe that’s why I look a little pale,” he explained.    
  
“Of course,” Jun said and handed Aiba the plate with bread.    
  
Aiba thanked him and took a bite of the bread. He could immediately feel some power coming back to his body. “You need to say when it’s too much,” Nino whispered, but Aiba just shook his head.    
  
“It’s okay.”    
  
“Have you been at the spa, like I told you to do?” Nino wanted to know. He still whispered at Aiba that the others couldn’t hear him.    
  
Aiba nodded. He was glad to have at least one friend he could talk openly with. Aiba trusted Nino, but he didn’t want to tell him that spas weren’t helping him at all. He was just thankful that someone thought about him.    
  
“You like visiting spas?” Sho wanted to know.    
  
“From time to time,” Aiba answered. “It’s nice to find some rest if life’s busy.”    
  
Sho laughed. It sounded like he made fun of Aiba. “As if you have a stressful life here.”    
  
Aiba tilted his head. He could argue with him now, but it wouldn’t change something. Sho was totally stuck behind a wall of arrogance and haughtiness. Aiba had seen many people like Sho, but he was one of the few people Aiba was sure that Sho actually wasn’t like that.    
  
“With patients like you he has more stress than a mouse running after her life when the cat is right behind her,” Nino growled.    
  
Sometimes Aiba just wanted to hug his friend for not caring about what he said.    
  
Right in the moment Sho wanted to say something probably not so nice to Nino, Jun and Ohno placed the food on the table.    
  
“I hope it tastes good. I tried a new recipe.” Jun smiled. He probably wanted to avoid Sho arguing with Nino, so he started talking about the new recipe and what he had added to the tomato-potato salad.    
  
“Those two are always fighting,” Sho’s shadow said. Aiba looked at Nino and Sho. Yes, he could imagine why they fought often. Nino hated arrogance, but he got bratty when someone showed an attitude like this. And he totally didn’t stay quiet when someone acted arrogant. “Papa-san, you got so angry and filled with bitterness.” The shadow walked up to Sho and pulled on his shorts. The other hand touched Sho’s arm. It was so tiny and it looked breakable, even though it was just a shadow’s hand.    
  
“Aiba-chan?” Aiba winced when he heard his name. He was totally absent-minded for some moments. Ohno smiled at him with a grilled tuna on his big fork. “Tuna?”    
  
Aiba nodded. “Yes, please.” He took the fish and thanked Ohno. His stomach was slightly grumbling and just by now Aiba realised how hungry he was.    
  
Satoshi told me you didn’t want to come first?” Jun asked.    
  
“I am not a real communicative person,” Aiba answered honestly.    
  
“We are happy that you decided to come here today,” Jun said. Ohno had told Aiba how happy Jun was about Ohno’s progress in their therapy. What Aiba had got to know till now, it was thanks to Jun that Ohno searched for help, and he was probably the support Ohno needed right now.    
  
“I don’t like him,” the shadow behind Ohno said. Aiba looked up. He didn’t like what he had heard. If a shadow had dark and bad feelings inside, it was much harder to make them disappear. They clung to the living people and it made it harder for the living ones to let go off. He just hoped that it wouldn’t make Ohno falling back again in a dark mood.    
  
“I am glad to be here.” Aiba tried not get too distracted by the shadows.    
  
“How did you two get to know each other?” Sho pointed at Nino and Aiba.    
  
“We know each other since childhood, and we went to school together. Then we studied partly together. He got a psychologist and I got a doctor. I was a pain in the ass till Masaki let me be his friend,” Nino explained.    
  
“Did you have a crush on him?” Jun asked directly.    
  
“No,” Nino laughed. “I had always a soft spot for crazy people like I am. And I was interested why Masaki never wanted to be in contact with others, and why he avoided people. And why he is so closed.”    
  
“Did you find the answer?” Sho wanted to know.    
  
“Yes, he can see dead people,” Nino said.    
  
Thanks to the movie ‘the sixth sense’ it had always been a good joke and no one spent a single thought about this story being the truth. No one ever asked if this was reality or not.    
  
“Oh of course,” Jun said. “Tell my grandmother I greet her, if you see her.”    
  
“Of course, I will.” Aiba bowed. He grinned.    
  
“But you can see the dead ones, so I don’t understand why everyone is laughing,” Sho’s shadow said.    
  
Aiba ignored it. He never talked with shadows. They knew he could see them, but he prevented it to get in contact with them. He never wanted to be the connection between living people and the dead ones. He wanted the living ones to let go off on their own, and not because they talked with the shadow, which wouldn’t change anything in their inside after all. Aiba never wanted them to get in contact with the beyond.    
  
~~~   
  
After they had finished eating, Aiba decided to make a little walk with Haro.    
  
“I’ll come with you. I need to exercise a little,” Nino said.    
  
“You and exercise?” Jun laughed.    
  
“Pff …, “ Nino snorted. “I am sportier than you think I am,” Nino retorted.    
  
“Oh, I am sure you are,” Jun said ironically.    
  
“Do you see this?” Nino turned to Aiba. “I call this thing here mobbing.”    
  
Aiba chuckled. A warm feeling crossed his body. It had been a good idea to come here. “Oh I am sure …, “ Aiba started. “ … that Jun’s right,” he laughed earning a dark glance and a playful smack on the head from Nino.    
  
Aiba looked at Sho who smiled at them. It was the first time he saw him smiling for real. It was a warm and honest smile, and not the one he showed when he had insulted someone. But this smile only lasted a few moments and Sho fell back to his frustrated self.    
  
~~~   
  
Aiba walked next to Nino without talking with each other. Nino turned back like he wanted to make sure that no one was following them. “You really do not look good.”    
  
“How charming, thank you,” Aiba said.    
  
Nino pulled on Aiba’s arm to make him stop. Haro looked back at them like she wanted them to go on. Then she found her interest in some flowers next to the path and started sniffing around there. Aiba let her run and made the leash a little longer to give her more space.    
  
“You look horrible, Masaki. Don’t overstrain yourself with your patients,” Nino said.    
  
Aiba sighed. He could see the worry in Nino’s eyes. “It’s okay, really. Just that there were two shadows here today and one of them is extremely strong and the other full of hatred. That makes everything really exhausting for me.” Aiba sat on the bench close to the way. He could feel his tension slowly fading. The shadows were too far away to hunt him till here.    
  
“Are they gone now?” Nino asked.    
  
“Yes.” Aiba stretched his arms. “They never leave their ‘owners’,” Aiba explained.    
  
“How about cancelling your next sessions?” Nino suggested. “We can go on a boat trip.”    
  
Aiba laughed. “And you want to tell me that you make a step on a boat?”    
  
Nino shrugged. “When I get seasick, you take the lead.”    
  
“Of course,” Aiba said ironically. “I think that would be more stressful than staying here between all the shadows.”    
  
“Okay, okay … ,” Nino said. “ … but how about a weekend just the two of us, locked in your house, playing some games, eating junk food, watching TV, going to swim and do a lot of nonsense?” Nino smiled at him.    
  
“I’d love that.” Aiba nodded.  A silly-funny-calm-weekend sounded almost too great.    
  
“It’s settled then. This weekend, just the two of us.” Nino stood up to walk up to Haro. “Did you hear that, cutie? This weekend I’ll be at your place.”    
  
Haro sniffed on Nino’s leg before she licked over it. “I think she likes me,” Nino said while he stroked over her fur.    
  
~~~   
  
It was late at night when Aiba woke up. His head felt like exploding and he sweat like crazy even though it wasn’t that hot.    
  
He stood up to take himself a glass of water. It was a calm night. Aiba stepped on the terrace. A warm wind was blowing. Aiba closed his eyes. The pain in his head got a little better, but it still felt like everything was spinning around.    
  
He took his pencils and paper from the desk and took place on the terrace again. He switched on the light he had bought for dark nights like this one, and started drawing.    
  
It was a strange attitude he had. Aiba always drew things which burdened him. He sometimes drew patients to get a better feeling for how they were. Aiba couldn’t tell why, but drawing them was like taking a picture from their soul.    
  
He drew Sho’s face and the small shadow clinging on Sho’s leg. Then he started with Ohno and Jun, both holding each other’s hand, looking at each other lovingly. Right behind them stood Ohno’s shadow pulling on their arms to get them away from each other.    
  
On a third picture Aiba drew himself in the pet shop’s garden. Right next to him stood Sho, smiling at him. No shadow was around him, nothing dark or bad was in this picture.    
  
Aiba looked at his drawings. They looked manga-like. Not the way he had drawn them, but more the form he used. They looked like small comic strips. Small pictures made a complete story from Aiba’s last days.    
  
The head ache faded slowly, but Aiba had still the feeling that his head would explode – it was like the shadows were still behind him, even though that couldn’t be.    
  
Sho’s and Ohno’s shadows were extreme strong, and Aiba had never worked with such strong ones.    
  
The most persistent and strongest shadow was the one hunting Nino once. Goose bumps appeared on Aiba’s skin when he thought about back then. Aiba and Nino never talked about that time back then, and it was probably the best thing they could do. Aiba and Nino wanted to get rid of the dark parts in their life. Not only Nino was affected by this, but also Aiba.    
  
Aiba sighed. He rubbed over his face. He was tired and his body felt like he had run a marathon. He yawned and stretched his limps. Once more he took a look at his drawings. He’d solve this riddle behind Sho and Ohno’s shadows and he’d made them fading.    


**A/N:** So Aiba was at the party. I know Sho is really hard to handle because of his attitude, but he'll be better soon, I promise.  
Nino and Aiba will have a nice weekend together, so what they'll do there? Any suggestions?  
Thanks for reading this chapter till the end my friends. <3  
  
  


 

  



	5. Chapter 5

** Title:  ** Behind the waves    
** Pairing:  ** Aiba Masaki/ Sakurai Sho; Matsumoto Jun/ Ohno Satoshi;    
** Rating:  ** PG-13  
 **Warning:** none   
** Summary:  ** Aiba has a special ability – he can see shadows surrounding people who can’t get rid of their past and what had happened to them and the people they once loved. As psychologist it’s Aiba’s duty to help them getting rid of their bad experiences (and their shadows) to start a new life. 

  
„Have you been on that road again?“ Aiba asked.    
  
It was Friday morning and it was Aiba’s last but one patient for this week. After Ohno and Sho he’d have his calm weekend together with Nino.    
  
“No.” Ohno shook his head. “I dreamed about me and Jun breaking up.”    
  
Aiba had already waited for a dream like this. He had learned that shadows always searched for a way to communicate with the living ones’. And the only way they had was to interfere into their sleep. That’s why Aiba had always been interested in his patient’s dreams.    
  
“What exactly happened in this dream?” Aiba asked. He could see Ohno smiling sadly.    
  
Ohno took some time till he finally answered Aiba. Even though it had just been a dream, it burdened Ohno. “We had a fight. In the end Jun told me that he has the feeling that I don’t love him enough to continue our relationship.”    
  
Aiba looked closely at Ohno. He wanted to see every tiny move of the other one. In the end everything could have had a deeper meaning, even though it was just a gesture. But Ohno didn’t move.    
  
“And you have the feeling that there is maybe a tiny truth in this dream?” Ohno shifted on his seat. He fumbled with the tablecloth nervously. Then he looked up at Aiba.    
  
Aiba could see dark rings under Ohno’s eyes. He was tired and exhausted. “No. Yes. I mean … ,” Ohno started. “… of course I love him.”    
  
“But?” Aiba asked. He could hear in Ohno’s voice that he was hesitating.    
  
“Gosh … .” Ohno rubbed his face. “I can’t love him full-heartedly.” Ohno nibbled on his lower lip. He had never spoken that out loud, Aiba was sure about that. “Even if I want to.”    
  
“Why?”    
  
Ohno looked up at him. He had tears in his eyes. Aiba had never seen Ohno like this before. He had never been the emotional one, but this time he completely changed.    
  
“It’s good that you aren’t able to love him more. You can’t go on without me,” the shadow said. “You hear me? Even though the accident wasn’t your fault, Satoshi, you won’t leave me. Never.” The shadow was aggravated and it had a lot of power when it was furious. Aiba felt his head spinning, but he tried to stay concentrated. Aiba took a piece of cake to gain a little more power.    
  
“I am a bad person. I don’t deserve to love someone anymore,” Ohno’s voice was almost silent and husky. He suffered.    
  
“What have you done, that you think that way?” Aiba wanted to know. He could feel the shadow’s mood changing. The power he took from Aiba got less and the tension in the air faded.    
  
“Oh my Satoshi. You aren’t a bad person.” The shadow got closer to Ohno and caressed his cheek softly.    
  
“I … I … ,” Ohno looked up. “I ….” Ohno shifted. “can’t …”    
  
Aiba raised his hand. He could see that it was still too early for Ohno to talk about what had happened to him. And Aiba didn’t want to force the other to talk about something he still wasn’t able to talk about. “Okay,” Aiba said. “What do you love about Jun?” He asked instead.    
Aiba could immediately feel his head spinning, because the shadow got aggravated. Aiba didn’t care about it. He had to make Ohno let go off his past, but he also had to make the shadow accept the fact that there was someone else in Ohno’s life – so also it had to let go off.    
  
“He’s there for me. From the very first beginning he’s at my side. I am a difficult person – I’ve always been,” Ohno smiled a little.    
  
“Why do you think you are difficult?” Aiba asked further.    
  
Ohno sighed. “I am very, very, very, air headed. And since I am not feeling well, I am sometimes totally in my own world, than I don’t even realize when someone talks with me.” Ohno took a cookie and broke it into pieces. He kept silent for some moments before he continued. “Some weeks ago I sat on the terrace. It had started raining, but I didn’t even realize it. I just sat there, staring into nothing. Jun called me at least four times, but I didn’t react. I didn’t even hear him, till he pulled on my arm to get me into the house. But I pushed him away. I wanted to stay outside because I wanted to feel the rain to know that I was still alive.” Ohno stopped. He looked at Aiba directly. “And Jun just sat there next to me, holding my hand. We didn’t talk with each other, he didn’t insult me, he was just there,” Ohno explained. “Just there for me,” he said again.    
  
Aiba had the feeling his head would go to explode. The shadow took Aiba’s power to get stronger, and he took a lot of power from Aiba. Aiba had the feeling that he’d going to faint. He concentrated on a point at the wall and took a cookie which he ate immediately.    
  
“He won’t get my place. He won’t be the only one for you – that was me, that’ll always be me. You won’t forget me,” the shadow cried out.    
  
“Ohno, that sounds like you love him from the bottom of your heart. Why do you believe that it’s not like this?” Aiba asked.    
  
“Because I killed someone.” now Ohno started crying.    
  
~~~   
  
The sun warmed Aiba’s body. He had his eyes closed. Slowly he felt the numbness in his right arm disappearing.    
  
Ohno’s words were still resounding in his mind. After Ohno had said this that he had killed someone, Aiba could feel an incredible pain crossing his body. The shadow had been on the top of its excitement and anger. Aiba had fought against fainting and luckily right in this moment their hour had been over and Ohno hurried to leave Aiba’s place.    
  
Aiba was sure that it had been exhausting for Ohno as well, that was the reason he rushed to leave Aiba’s place. Ohno wasn’t the type of guy who could show emotions to others openly. He had excused to Aiba when he left, because he had started crying here, but Aiba didn’t care. He had always been a crybaby, and he had no problem with being like this. But he also knew a lot of men, who would never show their feelings openly.    
  
Aiba stretched his arms. He felt tired and he wanted nothing more than to go to bed, but he’d have a second patient on that day. Sho would visit him and Aiba was already curious if Sho would talk a little more this time.    
  
Aiba let his hand stroke over the sand. He felt the grains of sand between his fingers. Aiba could hear Haro lumber up to him. It was hot, but the sun heated Aiba’s body in a good way. Aiba let his hand wander over Haro’s head. “Am I a little masochistic?” Aiba smiled.    
  
Haro grunted contently, moving her leg up and down when Aiba tickled him right under his collar. “I mean he really isn’t the nicest person and his arrogant behaviour really annoys me, but there is something behind this all,” Aiba sighed. “You know, I can see it in his eyes. There is this big pain he feels, and the wish to protect himself with being like this. He is cold and unfriendly to others.” Aiba sat up. “But call me stupid, I want to bring back what he once was and what he hides behind this big wall. I want to bring back to life what he had buried deep in his soul.”    
  
Haro lay down, her eyes closed. Probably she wasn’t even listening, but Aiba had the feeling to have someone he could talk to. Haro looked up nervously. Her ears were trembling and her snout went up and down fast. “Yes, they are close,” Aiba said. He could already feel a shadow pulling on his energy. Soon later he heard a knock on the door.    
  
“Hello Sho-san.” Aiba let him in. He wanted to make a plan how to bring Sho to talk with him, but in the end he had no idea. During all this years as psychologist he had hardly ever met someone closed like Sho.    
  
“Aiba-san.” Sho bowed. “How are you doing?” Sho smiled at him. It was one of his faked smiles.    
  
“Perfectly fine, and you?” Aiba replied.    
  
Sho shrugged. “I am okay.”    
  
Aiba scanned him properly. “You don’t look like you are okay.”    
  
“I am just a little bit tired. So this hour here will be my relaxing time before I need to go back to work,” Sho explained. 

“Do you want some coffee?” Aiba offered.    
  
Sho stepped on the terrace. “Yes please,” he said while he turned to Aiba. “Oh, Haro-chan, you look good.” Sho knelt down to stroke the dog’s neck. “She seems to be happy here.” Sho looked up at Aiba.    
  
“I let her run around for almost the whole day. I don’t want her to feel like in a cage,” Aiba explained.    
  
He could see Sho staring at him. “Aren’t you afraid that she runs into the sea?”    
  
Aiba stepped next to Sho and placed the coffee on the table. Next to it he put a plate with cookies. “No. Why should I?”    
  
“The sea can be really monstrous,” Sho’s voice sounded sad. Had Aiba found a weak point? He needed to be careful now. Sho stepped out of his shell – just a tiny bit – and every wrong word would make him disappear there again.    
  
“Haro is an intelligent animal – she knows exactly what she can do and she shouldn’t do. And at nights or when I am not at home, she’s with me or inside the house,” Aiba said. “And she’s no child you need to take care of.” These words were provoking, Aiba knew that, but maybe even an outburst could bring Aiba closer to the truth.    
  
“As if you have any idea of children.” Sho smiled sadly.    
  
“No, I don’t have children, what about you?” Aiba could see Sho wincing. For one second Sho seemed to think about saying something but in the end his dark eyes just stared at Aiba.    
  
“I am not here to let you read my mind, or do other doctor things with me,” Sho said harshly.    
  
“Just for the doctor’s protocol,” Aiba said. “You started with it, not me.”    
“I … don’t care about it…,” Sho said. His eyes got a little lighter again. He didn’t seem to stand someone who was talking back to him.    
  
“How’s Jun doing?” Aiba asked. He wanted to get away from this topic, and maybe he’d find out something interesting when they talked about Sho’s family.    
  
“I think he’s fine.” Sho stood up from where he had knelt next to Haro and sat on the chair towards Aiba. “He works a lot at the moment. He has a lot of nightshifts.”    
  
Sho seemed to be happy that he wasn’t the main subject of Aiba’s questions.    
  
“Ah, right, he works together with Nino.” Aiba took a sip of his coffee. Sho’s shadow had been calm till now, but when Aiba had asked about children, he could feel the shadow pulling on Aiba’s energy.    
  
“Yes, but Nino has this weekend off,” Sho nodded. “Jun works and Ohno is fishing somewhere.”    
  
“And you?” Aiba wanted to know.    
  
“Me?” Sho seemed astonished. “Well, I work tomorrow and on Sunday. And I need to go to mainland on Sunday afternoon. I need to settle some things.”    
  
“Settle things?” Aiba asked further – a small step into the right direction.    
  
“I need to cancel … my rental agreement,” Sho answered and the way he did reply Aiba was sure that it was only half of the truth.    
  
“You still have an apartment in Tokyo?” Aiba asked.    
  
Sho nodded. “But I don’t need it anymore.”    
  
“So you won’t come to visit me anymore. You’ll forget me,” the shadow whined.    
  
Aiba felt the shadow taking his energy. He felt everything getting dizzy around him. “Do you have a lot of friends in Tokyo?” He tried to stay concentrated, even though he already felt weak.    
  
Sho shook his head. “Most of my old friends were the one from my … friend.”    
  
“You call mommy a friend? Why Papa?” The shadow yelled out. Haro howled and ran out to the beach to find herself a place under the tree. The shadows emotions were too much for her.    
  
“Ah, I understand. The friends from a past relationship are always hard to keep alive, because mostly they decide for one side – which is not your side,” Aiba said.    
  
Sho smiled at him. “I thought you wouldn’t recognize that I am talking about a past relationship.”    
  
“Wrong thought.” Aiba shrugged. “What kind of relationship was that?”    
  
Sho sighed. “I actually didn’t want to talk with you about anything private, but you have a calming attitude. Do you know that?”    
  
“Thank you.” Aiba bowed – one point for him. He was able to make Sho open up at least a little bit.    
  
“She was my fiancé, but it didn’t work out so we went separate ways,” Sho explained.    
  
Of course that wasn’t the whole truth, but Aiba accepted it. It was more than he had hoped for.    
  
“Can I give you an exercise?” Aiba asked.    
  
“No,” Sho just said.    
  
Aiba had counted with that answer, but nevertheless he wanted to try it. 

 

**A/N** : So here we are with the next chapter. Thanks for all your ideas, they are really good <3 What do you think about Ohno? What happened there? Will he stay together with Jun? And Sho? What's with his shadow and the fiance he had? :)))) I am really curious about your thoughts <3  
Thanks for reading this multi chapter, I really enjoy each and every of your comments, you are the best <3 <3  
  



	6. Chapter 6

** Title:  ** Behind the waves    
** Pairing:  ** Aiba Masaki/ Sakurai Sho; Matsumoto Jun/ Ohno Satoshi;    
** Rating:  ** PG-13 (R for this one)  
 **Warning:** none   
** Summary:  ** Aiba has a special ability – he can see shadows surrounding people who can’t get rid of their past and what had happened to them and the people they once loved. As psychologist it’s Aiba’s duty to help them getting rid of their bad experiences (and their shadows) to start a new life. 

 

  
„You look horrible.“ Nino walked into Aiba’s house.   
  
“Welcome to you too,” Aiba grumbled. He went to bed after Sho had left and he woke up when he had heard Nino knocking on his door.   
  
Aiba lay down on the sun lounger he had on his terrace.   
  
“You had Ohno and Sho here today, right?” Nino handed Aiba a bottle of beer. “Drink something, you need some power.”   
  
Aiba took a sip of the cold liquid. He had the feeling that the beer rushed through his veins and relived his tired and almost numb nerves. “Yes, they were both here today.” Aiba sighed.   
  
Nino sat on the second lounger. “I already told you that you should watch out. You shouldn’t overstrain yourself.”   
  
Aiba smiled. “I didn’t expect to so strong shadows. Do you have any idea who the shadows are?”   
  
Nino shook his head. “I just know that Sho came back to the island some time ago. Je was under medical treatment, but because I know him I wasn’t allowed to treat him,” Nino explained. “And Satoshi…” Nino sighed. Aiba had the feeling that Nino fought about telling him what he knew about the other. “He had an accident on the island.”   
  
“Yes, I already guessed something like that.” Aiba nodded.   
  
“I am not allowed to talk about it, Masaki, bust just so far: it’s a great luck that Satoshi survived that accident, but sometimes I have the feeling he wanted to die there,” Nino said.   
  
“He’s really sad, and his soul is like on fire.” Aiba drank his beer. “And on the other side is Jun. He had such a strong will to help Ohno. That’s amazing.”   
  
Nino agreed. “Yes, he’s probably the reason why Ohno is still alive.”   
  
“So, but now we have our super-calm-buddy-weekend, and we stop talking about work now.” Nino clapped. He placed the bags with the drinks on the table.   
  
“I bought some fish and meat,” Aiba said. “And we have enough to drink.” He peeked into Nino’s bag. He pulled out some games and videos.   
  
“You really need to take care of you, Masaki.” Nino looked really worried and Aiba hated it to see his friend like this. He didn’t want to burden anyone.   
  
“I will, I promise,” Aiba said. “How about playing some games now?” He waved with Mario Kart and Nino was immediately totally in for that.   
  
~~~  
  
Aiba could feel his eyes getting tired. They had played various rounds Mario Kart, Mario Smash Brothers and any kind of stupid car racing game Nino had brought along. “I think it’s time for bed now.” Aiba yawned. He wasn’t exactly tired, but he hoped Nino would understand what he wanted to tell him.   
  
“Does Haro sleep in your bedroom?” Nino asked.   
  
Aiba looked at his dog. She lay in her basket and just looked up when she heard her name. “No, she stays here in her bed – at least most of the time. Sometimes she doesn’t.”   
Nino grinned at Aiba and Aiba knew what it meant. “Oh,” Aiba nibbled on his lower lip.   
  
He and Nino had this special contract since they were at college together. They shared a friends-with-benefits-friendship next to their normal friendship.   
  
Aiba had never thought that it would work out without falling or each other. He had waited for the moment till one of them realized that there was more between them, but this moment never came. When Aiba had broken the friends-with-benefits thing for the first time, because he had fallen in love with someone it had been absolutely no problem. They had changed their relationship into a normal friendship without feeling any loss or bad or something else. And when Aiba had broken up again, they had started it again, and when Nino had found someone they stopped it again, and so on. But Aiba knew that this was something special, something not everyone could share with another person, and he and Nino had the great luck to meet each other and to find out that this worked for the both of them perfectly.   
  
Aiba stood up to give Haro a treat before he pulled Nino up to rush with him to his bedroom.   
  
~~~  
  
Aiba pressed Nino down on the mattress, moving in him frantically. He could hear Nino’s pants together with some loud moans escaping Nino’s mouth. Aiba angled to change their position till he heard Nino crying out. He smiled and leaned down, kissing Nino’s slightly parted lips.   
  
Aiba’s moves fastened up when he felt the well-known knot in his belly ready to explode. He moved against Nino’s hips with hard thrusts, digging his nails into Nino’s waist, but Nino didn’t seem to care about it. He moved his body against Aiba’s to get more of the friction.   
  
Nino looked up at him. “Please,” he pressed out.   
  
Aiba roamed his hand over Nino’s belly before he stroked Nino’s cock lazily. He slowed his thrusts, enjoying some whines from Nino, before he sped up again, hitting Nino’s spot with every thrust. His hand moved in rhythm with his thrusts now, and it didn’t take them long to come almost together.   
  
Aiba rode out his orgasm moving against Nino, who breathed out deeply and sank tiredly onto the bed. Aiba pulled out and lay next to Nino, both panting heavily. “You know, that’s always really calming,” Aiba chuckled.   
  
“Absolutely.” Nino grinned at him.   
  
Aiba took a long shower before he climbed back to his bed, waiting for Nino to return. “Good night,” he murmured when he felt Nino lying down.   
  
“Yeah, good night, Masa-chan,” Nino said.   
  
~~~  
  
Aiba was already deep asleep when he woke up because Nino shifted nervously next to him. “Is everything okay?” Aiba asked. He looked at the clock. It was half past 3am – Saturday morning.   
  
Nino turned to the side. Aiba had thought right, Nino was awake. He looked at Aiba directly. “Yes, but sometimes it’s still hunting me.”   
  
Nino’s face looked pale. He looked tired. It was one of the few moments Nino showed his real feelings. He was all in all okay again, but sometimes his dark past feelings caught him. “It’s exactly ten years now, right?” Aiba asked.   
  
Nino sat up to lean against the backrest. “Yes.”   
  
“Do you want to talk about it?” Aiba sat towards Nino. He looked at his friend, who nibbled on his lower lip nervously.   
  
“Shit,” Nino cursed. He stroked over his cheek to brush away his tears. “I wanted to forget this whole fucking shit.”   
  
Aiba felt his belly twitching – of course this was years ago, and it wasn’t as bad as it had been back then, but Aiba never wanted to see his friend suffering again, not because of this damn shadow. Aiba wasn’t sure if anyone else knew Nino in the condition he was right now, or if it was just Aiba Nino trusted that much, but Aiba cherished this thing between them, because in the end Aiba could always count on Nino’s help, no matter which daytime it was.   
  
Aiba wrapped his arms around Nino’s neck to pull him closer. He could feel Nino clinging on him, sobbing into Aiba’s neck. This was totally not Nino-like. “It’s okay now, Nin-chan.” Aiba called him like this when he wanted to calm him down.   
  
Nino looked up. “I can’t forget about it.”   
  
“You shouldn’t forget it, Nin-chan, you should accept it. You can’t change your past. It’s what had turned you into the person you are today,” Aiba said.   
  
Nino hiccupped. “Now you sound like a psychologist.”   
  
Aiba shrugged. “Well, I am a psychologist, even in my free time.”   
  
“How can I live with this? I don’t know how to accept it,” Nino sounded desperate. Aiba could see the dark sparkle in Nino’s eyes. “It burdens me, Masaki. I have the feeling of being ripped in parts.”   
  
Aiba felt bad. He wanted to help his friend so badly, but sadly it weren’t wounds a doctor could heal with just a dressing and a Band-Aid. “What pictured do you have in your mind?” Aiba asked.   
  
Nino closed his eyes. He pulled on the blanket, his breath was a little faster than usually. He didn’t say a word like he was thinking about what to say.   
  
“Lie down, Nin-chan, and make yourself as comfortable as possible.” Aiba pulled on the blanket till Nino lay completely underneath it. He patted Nino’s head like he had always done when they were children.   
  
“There is this long corridor. It’s the school’s corridor. It’s … it’s …” Nino’s voice broke.   
  
Aiba sighed. Now he could feel the pain in him rising. It was the time even Aiba had always tried to forget. “It’s the place I found you.”   
  
Nino nodded. “I sit there and you shake me. You shout at me, but I am not moving.”   
  
Aiba breathed out. Even though he had suggested Nino to live with this memory, it was something even he wanted to erase from his memory. “You kneel next to me, telling me that I need to let go off.” Nino was now trembling. Aiba felt the Goosebumps on his skin. “You yell with the shadow to let me go.  I can’t see the shadow, I look around, but I don’t see him.”   
  
“What do you feel in the moment?” Aiba asked.   
  
Nino thought some time before he turned his head to look up at Aiba with tear-filled eyes. “Sad, angry, frustrated, exhausted, all together.”   
  
“What happens next?” Aiba already knew it, but he wanted Nino to speak it out loud, no matter how hard it was for him (and also for Aiba).   
  
“You press your scarf around my bloody wrist. And then you lean closer. You whisper that everything will be alright and that you’ll always stay my friend,” Nino said. “You asked me if I think that it’s my fault that Shiro died.”   
  
Aiba froze. He didn’t want to hear that name again. It was the one who almost ruined his best friend. The one who almost let Nino commit suicide. “Do you think it was your fault?”   
  
Nino smiled sadly. “He was obsessed with me. When he was still alive he locked me after school. I wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone except him, even when he was with me. My real thought back than was that I am happy that he was gone. I was so happy that he had died. And that burdened me. I was happy about someone else’s death.”   
  
“You felt like you were a bad person because of that?” They had had this conversation for at least hundred times, but Aiba would listen to Nino if it take another ten thousand times.   
  
Nino nodded. “I can remember that I spoke out loud that I am so happy that he’s gone and that I feel bad about it, but I don’t change my mind.”   
  
Aiba remembered like it had been yesterday. “He dissolved after you said this.”   
  
“I know. I felt like I got a part of myself back. But I still feel guilty from time to time.” Nino looked down. “Not only because of my feelings towards his death, but also because of you and my family.”   
  
“Me?” Aiba stunned. Even though he knew this story in every detail, Nino never said something like this before.   
  
“I tried to end my life, Ma-chan, and I still remember your shocked expression when I saw you there, kneeling in front of me. You told the shadow three times to disappear. You yelled at him like madly and you had tears in your eyes. You never talked with shadows, it was one of your principles, but you broke it because of me,” Nino said.   
  
“And in the end he did.” Aiba brushed Nino’s cheek. “But you really don’t need to feel bad, Nin-chan, you had a hard time and of course I was there for you. I always will be.”   
  
“I know,” Nino smiled. “And I am really thankful to have a friend like you.” Aiba could feel a burning pain behind his eyes. Nino pulled one eyebrow up. “Don’t you dare to start crying now.”   
  
“It’s so not you to say such words. It touched me.” A warm wave rushed through Aiba’s body. It was nice to hear that Nino cherished their friendship, even though there had never been a doubt that he did.   
  
“I just want to get rid of everything bad in my life, but it’s a step by step thing.” Nino smiled.   
  
“You’ll make it,” Aiba said.   
  
  
**A/N:** So this is the first part of the Aimiya weekend ;) No one of you got the right answer :P What do you think about the Aimiya relationship? And about Nino's past?  
I know this chapter was only about Aimiya and their story, but I wanted to work out their past, in the next chapters will be more of Sakuraiba // Juntoshi and Nino again I promise :)  
  
  



	7. Chapter 7

** Title:  ** Behind the waves    
** Pairing:  ** Aiba Masaki/ Sakurai Sho; Matsumoto Jun/ Ohno Satoshi;    
** Rating:  ** PG-13 (R for this one)  
 **Warning:** none   
** Summary:  ** Aiba has a special ability – he can see shadows surrounding people who can’t get rid of their past and what had happened to them and the people they once loved. As psychologist it’s Aiba’s duty to help them getting rid of their bad experiences (and their shadows) to start a new life. 

 

Nino had already fallen asleep again, but Aiba couldn’t sleep anymore. It was half past 4am. He stared at the ceiling. His thoughts were running wild.    
  
Aiba sat up and sneaked out of the room. Haro lay in her basket but she looked up immediately when Aiba passed her. “Shhh…quiet,” he whispered at her.    
  
Aiba took some sheets of paper from his cupboard and collected his pens and a glass of his self-made-ice-tea he had made some time ago. He opened the door to his terrace and sat at his table. It was still warm outside.    
  
Haro lay next to him, her body across Aiba’s legs. She immediately snoozed away again. Aiba started drawing and got lost in his fast but exact lines. Soon he had Nino’s body on the corridor, the shadow above them till it had disappeared. On the other page he drew Ohno and next to him Jun, who was searching for Ohno’s hand to hold it, but Ohno didn’t react. On a third page he drew Sho with a little girl in a nice dress right next to him. She looked up at Sho, and he smiled down at her full-heartedly. On a last page Aiba drew himself, sitting next to Sho. Their shoulders almost touched. On the other side were Jun and Oho, happy together, no shadows around them. He drew Nino right next to him with a big smile around his lips.    
  
“You really drew me well.” Aiba yelled out when a sudden voice resounded behind him in the almost silent morning. Aiba looked at the clock. It was already 8am.    
  
“God, do you want to kill me?” Aiba turned to face Nino. 

“No, actually not.” Nino grinned. He was totally his old self again. There was no sadness and no broken heart like he had showed it earlier. “How about I make some breakfast for us and you go for a walk with Haro?” Nino suggested.    
  
“You voluntarily make breakfast?” Aiba blinked. “Okay, who are you and where’s my Nin-chan?”    
  
Nino chuckled. “Stupid Ma-chan.” He threw the rubber against Aiba.    
  
Both had to laugh. Aiba felt awake and the terrible tiredness from the day before was gone, even though he hadn’t slept much last night. He really needed to take care of himself. He shouldn’t be in contact with two shadows at once often.    
  
“Those pictures are amazing, Ma-chan.” Nino brushed over the paper.    
  
Aiba blushed. Those were actually his thoughts – a bit like his personal diary in pictures. It wasn’t something he usually showed to anyone.    
  
“Especially this last picture with us together. We all look so happy and hat’s this closeness between you and Sho?” Now Nino grinned sheepishly.    
  
Aiba took the papers to bring them away. “Nothing.”    
  
Nino tilted his head. “Ohhh… I see … you like him?”    
  
Aiba looked at his friend. To like Sho? The one who talked with him like it been Aiba’s fault that Sho felt bad? “No, I think we can’t talk about like here. He really is an asshole, really.”    
  
Aiba could see Nino stunning before he burst out in laughter. “To hear such words from you, who even said that our ‘stone-throwing-neighbour’ back in our childhood had a good side, and he was just stuck in a depression, is really amusing.”    
  
“It’s the truth.” Aiba shrugged. “He’s so closed and he acts like he’s the king of the world. And it annoys me, because I am sure he wasn’t always like that.”    
  
Nino shook his head. “No, he was once really a nice young guy. But he has changed a lot.”    
  
“I really wonder what happened to him.” Aiba knew he shouldn’t start that topic again, but Sho was so closed, he didn’t even have a clue what could have happened.    
  
Nino sighed. “As I said, I have no idea either. And I think not even Jun as his brother is perfectly informed what happened back then.” Nino rubbed his belly. “But before we start a big conversation now, let’s make some breakfast. And you go with Haro, she already waits for her walk.” Nino pointed at Haro. She stood at the terrace’s door, waving her tail left and right. 

“Okay, I am back in half an hour,” Aiba said and took the leash from the cupboard he had on his terrace. Haro immediately jumped around him before she headed to the front door.    
  
~~~   
  
Aiba walked down the small path. Haro ran left and right, and back and forth, but Aiba let her. He was in his thoughts. Nino’s words were still resounding in his ear. Did he really like Sho? No, but there was something attractive in his eyes – and Aiba had to admit that Sho was his type. Just that he’d never get into any kind of intimidate contact with his patients, and in the end Sho had had a child, so he most probably wasn’t interested in men.    
  
Aiba shook his head – no – that was just his weird mind, maybe because of the shadow Sho was surrounded by.    
  
“Come, Haro-chan, we walk back home.” Aiba pulled a little on the leash and Haro immediately started running back home. Aiba let the leash go and Haro jumped through the grass to the beach and headed towards Aiba’s house where she threw herself on Nino’s leg just to bite into his calf almost painfully. 

“Hey, you brat,” Nino yelled out and jumped which made Haro believe that he wanted to play with her. She jumped up and reached the tie of Nino’s shorts. She pulled on it till Nino’s shorts slipped down his knees. “Leave it, Haro, stop.” But she didn’t listen. She shook her head and snarled like it was a very funny play – which it was – for her.    
  
Aiba had already tears in his eyes. He held his stomach which already hurt.    
  
“Stop laughing and help me here,” Nino whined.    
  
“You look incredible cool with your shorts down your knees and your fight for your pants,” Aiba hiccupped because he was already out of breath.    
  
Stop laughing and help me out!” Nino cried.    
  
For one second Aiba thought about letting Nino suffer a little longer, but he was already starving and so he pulled out a treat and whistled, “Haro, here.”    
  
Haro let Nino go to rush up to Aiba, taking the food out of his palm.    
  
Nino pulled up his shorts and grumbled something maybe not so nice. Nino pushed the tie on his pants into them. “Just in case you want in my pants again.” He glanced at the dog.    
  
Aiba sat down on the ground, laughing like madly. His sight got blur when he felt the tears filling his eyes. He didn’t remember when he had laughed that much for the last time.    
“How nice that you think my misery is that funny.” Nino pointed with the knife at Aiba.    
  
“I should have made a picture,” Aiba pressed out.    
  
“Oh yeah, that would have been nice,” Nino grunted. “And now come, I need a big coffee and some pancakes.”    
  
Aiba sat next to Nino. “Maybe I will draw this.”    
  
Nino threw a dark glance at Aiba. “Oh shut up.” He took a bite of his pancake and started chewing angrily.    
  
“Thank you.” Aiba bowed.    
  
Nino blinked. “What for?”    
  
“That you made me laugh full-heartedly. I really needed this.”    
  
Nino put the fork on the table and pulled his eyebrow up when he looked at Aiba. “I love being your personal mood-trainer-clown-whatever.”    
  
“What do you want to do today?” Aiba changed the topic. He knew Nino too well to risk that he’d get really annoyed with him.    
  
“Hm, how about chilling in the sun, maybe play some Mario Kart in the afternoon and have a nice barbeque in the evening? I’d suggest to go to town for you to buy the food,” Nino said.    
  
Aiba clapped. “I have some things here already, but we’d need some more things to have a nice barbeque, so that’s great. I can make salads and sauces for us while you are in town.”    
  
Nino smiled at him. “Okay, that really sounds like a plan. So let’s have a nice breakfast now. And maybe we’ll go to swim afterwards?”    
  
Aiba nodded. He could really feel the stress of the last days fading. It was nice to have a weekend like this one. “That really sounds like a master-plan.”    
  
~~~   
  
Aiba cut the strawberries into little pieces. He wanted to make a nice cake for him and Nino who was already in town to buy the food for the barbeque.    
  
Akira lay on the window sill, purring slowly. She enjoyed being surrounded by humans from time to time. But when Aiba had a visitor she hardly showed up. “You have a good life, Kitty.” Aiba grinned.    
  
Aiba felt like he had a soulmate with Akira, because she was like him, he also didn’t like humans around him – at least not every human.    
  
“I am back,” Aiba heard Nino yelling from the front door. Akira stood up and jumped down into the garden, hiding somewhere under the bushes. Aiba smiled at that. “Oh, and I brought someone along, I hope that’s okay.”    
  
Aiba walked up to the door. He was curious who it was. There was no shadow somewhere around, so it couldn’t be Ohno or Sho. “Jun-kun?” Aiba asked stunning.    
  
Jun bowed. “I am sorry for breaking into your calm weekend. I can go if I disturb you and come back any other time.”    
  
“Nah,” Aiba waved, “don’t be stupid. We have enough to eat, so come in. Where’s Ohno?”    
  
“Thank you,” Jun said. “He’s on a boat trip. That’s why I wanted to visit you. He doesn’t know that I am here.”    


**A/N:** So we have a little visitor on their weekend, why is Jun at Aiba's place? What does he want to talk about? :)  



	8. Chapter 8

** Title:  ** Behind the waves    
** Pairing:  ** Aiba Masaki/ Sakurai Sho; Matsumoto Jun/ Ohno Satoshi;    
** Rating:  ** PG-13 (R for this one)  
 **Warning:** none   
** Summary:  ** Aiba has a special ability – he can see shadows surrounding people who can’t get rid of their past and what had happened to them and the people they once loved. As psychologist it’s Aiba’s duty to help them getting rid of their bad experiences (and their shadows) to start a new life. 

 

Aiba got curious. Why was Jun here? Aiba looked at Nino who understood Aiba’s expression immediately. “I’ll go outside to prepare the barbeque and make the fire, how about the two of you prepare the meat and the salad?”   
  
“That’s a good idea, come Jun, I’ll show you everything.” Aiba turned to Nino and formed a silent thank you around his lips. Nino nodded in response. They walked to the kitchen.   
  
Aiba heard Nino closing the door to the terrace and stepped closer to Jun. “Is everything alright?” Aiba asked.   
  
He could see Jun nibbling on his lower lip nervously. “No, not really.”   
  
“What happened to Ohno?” Aiba asked directly.   
  
Jun sighed. He took place at the small table in the kitchen. Aiba took the can with a cold maccha tea out of his fridge and handed Jun a glass. “It’s not really about Ohno – or let’s say not only.”   
  
“Take a sip of your tea, and here you have a cookie. Believe me, that help when you are stressed. And you look really pale.”   
  
Jun thanked him. He raised the cup and took some sips of his tea. He breathed out deeply before he looked up at Aiba and started talking again. “Sho-kun visited us yesterday. I was outside for some moments and when I came back inside I heard them fighting. It was really, really low and mean and they got really hurting towards each other. In the end Ohno packed his things and just said that he’d be on his boat for the whole weekend.”   
  
It was hard for Jun talking about this. Aiba saw that in the way Jun was biting his lips and shifting on his seat.   
  
“What was the fight about?” Aiba sat down towards Jun.   
  
“They fought about totally silly, stupid things,” Jun said. “They were so enraged, I couldn’t stop them.”   
  
“Did you try it?” Aiba wanted to know.   
  
“Yes, and in the end they shouted at me.” Jun smiled sadly. He had dark rings under his eyes. He wasn’t sleeping well, Aiba could see this.   
  
“Jun, how are you feeling?”   
  
Jun blinked. “What?”   
  
Aiba smiled at him. “I want to know how you feel.”   
  
“I am … okay … I guess,” Jun stuttered.   
  
“Are you really?” Aiba asked further. “Why did you come here then?”   
  
“I am tired Aiba. I have the feeling that I give everything into a relationship where I don’t get anything back.” Jun was for sure no one who cried easily, but now he had some small drops in the corner of his eyes. “And then there is my brother, who always insults me.”   
  
“About what?” Aiba asked.   
  
“He thinks I have an ‘oh-so-perfect-life’. And the one who has a total mess in his life is he – and no one else. You know him, he’s the worst person I know, but he wasn’t always like this. It burdens me to see him suffer, but with his aggressive and arrogant attitude I totally stop feeling sorry for him.”   
  
Aiba nodded. “And you don’t want to hear that your life is perfect, because it isn’t?”   
  
“Yes,” Jun said.   
  
“Why are you here, Jun? What do you want me to do for you?” Aiba asked.   
  
Jun shrugged. “I think I needed someone to talk to. Someone who isn’t connected to the family. It’s a small island here, and everyone knows each other.”   
  
“Tell me, Jun, do you love Ohno?” Aiba wanted to know.   
  
Jun smiled. “More than everyone else, but don’t tell him, he won’t keep his feet on the ground,” Jun joked, before he got earnest again. “But it’s really hard to be with him. His past cut deep wounds in his soul and he totally has changed because of that.”   
  
Aiba nodded. At least Jun and Ohno felt same, he was sure that they’d make it through this. “How about your brother? Have you ever tried telling him that he’s horrible when he’s with you?”   
  
“Yes,” Jun answered. “But he’s so closed, he doesn’t even realize it.” Jun rubbed his face. He definitely thought about telling Aiba further things. “You know, after these happenings in Sho’s past, after he had come back to here, he wasn’t the brother I had always loved. We had our differences, we had the same crushes, but we were always brothers after all.”   
  
The same crushes? This was interesting. “I thought Sho had a fiancé in Tokyo?” Aiba asked.   
  
“Oh.” Jun nodded. “Yes. Sho never decided to go for one sex. He always said that he falls in love with a person because of his or her personality and character and not because of their sex. I never understood that, because for me there were always men I felt attracted to, but he was different, and I accepted that.”   
  
So that’s how it was. “I didn’t know that.”   
  
“Sorry for interrupting, but the fire is ready. I see you haven’t even started preparing the food, but slowly I get hungry;” Nino’s head appeared at the door.   
  
“Sure.” Jun smiled. “Let’s prepare the food.” He stood up and started unpacking the things they had bought.   
  
~~~  
  
“That was so delicious.” Nino leaned back his hand stroking his belly.   
  
“This salad dressing, Jun, is absolutely incredible,” Aiba praised.   
  
He could see Jun blushing slightly. “Thank you. And thank you that I was allowed to stay here for dinner.” He bowed. “I am sorry I interrupted your ‘best-friend’ weekend.”   
  
“Totally no problem, really.” Aiba smiled. He had enjoyed Jun’s presence, and it was nice to have another person who’d maybe become his friend – shadow free.   
  
“I think I go home now. Maybe Ohno is already waiting for me,” Jun said. Probably Ohno wasn’t waiting, but Jun hoped for this.   
“Have a save way home, Jun.” Nino waved when Jun stood up to go. Aiba accompanied him to the door.   
  
“Jun.” Aiba had thought for almost the whole dinner if he should tell Jun a little detail of his therapy with Ohno. Normally he didn’t do that, but this tiny detail wasn’t that private. “Ohno really loves you, you should know that.”   
  
Jun stepped closer to hug Aiba out of the blue. “Thank you so much. That means really a lot to me. It makes it a little bit easier.” With that he walked away.   
  
Aiba stepped back to the terrace. It was already dusk but still warm to sit outside and enjoy the evening with a glass of wine and some chips. “Wow, I thought your life is a mess, Ma-chan, but these guys have a real fucked up mess in their life,” Nino said.   
  
Aiba sighed. “It’s getting worse now.” He rubbed his face. It really wasn’t planned to talk with Jun about their problems, and in the end it was maybe not a good idea to do so.   
  
“Why worse?” Nino wanted to know.   
  
Aiba took a big sip of his wine. It tasted fresh and fruity. He was actually no wine-lover but this one really tasted good. He could feel it running down his throat, leaving a nice taste on his tongue. Even though there was no shadow included today, it was exhausting. Aiba needed to watch out what he was saying and that was a fact he absolutely didn’t like. “Now all three of them are visiting me, and they are connected to each other and this creates a bigger mess.”   
  
Aiba leaned forward to take a potato chip. “And I really need to watch out who tells me which story, because otherwise I might create a big quarrel and mess here.”   
  
Nino nodded at Aiba. He seemed to be lost in his thoughts. “Do you think you can help them?”   
  
“I really have no idea,” Aiba sighed.   
  
Nino nodded. “I think there is no one better than you to help them out of this,” Nino said.   
  
“Do you need something from me because you get so nice out of sudden?” Aiba laughed. He wasn’t used to get a compliment from his friend.   
  
Nino blushed. He threw a chip at Aiba which landed on the ground and got immediately occupied by Haro, who first just licked over it before she bit on it once and swallowed it down in almost one piece. “I just wanted to say that you are really a good psychologist, really.”   
  
“And you get nervous,” Aiba grinned.   
  
“Gosh, I am not used to give compliments, so don’t make it that hard for me and just take it, okay?” Nino grumbled.   
  
Aiba bit his lower lip to supress his smile. “Okay, thank you Nin-chan, that’s really nice from you – and cute. Especially your redden ears when you are embarrassed.” Aiba pointed at Nino’s ear. He couldn’t stop baiting Nino a bit.   
  
“I really do not like you sometimes, you know that, right?” Nino grunted.   
  
“Yes, I know.” Aiba felt good. It was calm and warm around him, and he felt relaxed like he hadn’t been for months. This weekend was the best idea Nino had in ages, and he’d try to fix another date for another weekend with his friend. Sometimes Aiba really needed to just lock himself in and enjoy a calm time just with his terrace, his TV and his friend.   
  
  
**A/N:** So it's really a big mess around them, and Aiba in the middle....:D


	9. Chapter 9

** Title:  ** Behind the waves    
** Pairing:  ** Aiba Masaki/ Sakurai Sho; Matsumoto Jun/ Ohno Satoshi;    
** Rating:  ** PG-13 (R for this one)  
 **Warning:** none   
** Summary:  ** Aiba has a special ability – he can see shadows surrounding people who can’t get rid of their past and what had happened to them and the people they once loved. As psychologist it’s Aiba’s duty to help them getting rid of their bad experiences (and their shadows) to start a new life. 

  
Weekend had passed far too quick. Nino was back in the hospital – preparing for a six days working week and Aiba was back with his patients.    
  
“Come in, Sho-kun.” He smiled at Sho and let him into his house. “How was your trip to the mainland?” Aiba could see Sho wincing. He really didn’t like talking about Tokyo.    
  
“I was able to clear things up. Now I am full-heartedly back to this island.” Sho sat down. He looked horrible – and Aiba got more and more interested what Sho had really done on the mainland.    
  
“Tea? Coffee? You look terrible tired,” Aiba offered.    
  
“Coffee would be really nice, thank you,” Sho answered. “How was your weekend?”    
  
Aiba prepared the coffee and didn’t look up at Sho. He had thought the whole morning about telling Sho about Jun’s visit or not. “It was very nice. Nino and Jun were here.”    
  
“Jun?” Sho sounded surprised.    
  
“Yes.” Aiba placed the cup on the table. He loved the smell of fresh coffee. “He told me that Ohno went fishing and he didn’t want to be alone at home,” Aiba lied. He couldn’t tell Sho the truth about Jun’s visit. Even though Jun wasn’t his patient, their talk seemed to be something just between them for Aiba.    
  
“Really?” Sho asked. His eyes were small and sparkling like he wanted to read Aiba’s thoughts. “He didn’t say something else?”    
  
Got you – Aiba thought and hid a grin. He just needed to pretend that he had no idea. “Is there something he should have told me?”    
  
Sho sighed. He was fighting with an answer and if he should tell Aiba the truth or not. It felt good to see Sho struggling with his own thoughts. It was a step forward for Aiba. “We had a stupid fight,” Sho finally said. Aiba was surprised even though he could see Sho thinking about what to say. He didn’t count with an honest answer.    
  
“You and Jun?” Aiba acted the fool.    
  
Sho shook his head. “No, not really. It was me and Ohno fighting, but in the end we slashed at Jun.”    
  
“Do you feel sorry about that?” Aiba asked.    
  
Sho looked up at him. There was a second where his wall fell down. It was just a second and nothing more, but Aiba had the feeling to see the real Sho there. And the real Sho felt sorry. “Yes, a little bit.” He sighed.    
  
“What did you fight about?” Aiba asked.    
  
Sho let out another deep sigh. He shifted nervously on his chair. “We discussed work and living here.”    
  
Aiba looked at Sho closely. “And that let you end up in a huge fight?”    
  
Sho leaned back against his chair. He seemed to seriously think about what to say now. “Yes, and no.” Sho smiled at him. It was a new smile he showed to Aiba – a mixture of sadness, confusion, mixed with tiredness – but the arrogance was gone. “Ohno had a real bad year back in 2011 and since back then he wished for fleeing from here, just Jun holds him back somehow. And I am stuck to here, because I fled from somewhere else, which Ohno doesn’t understand. I think that’s what makes us running in circles.”    
  
“Do you want to protect your brother?” Aiba asked instead of asking further about the fight between Sho and Ohno.    
  
Sho shook his head. “He has a good match with Ohno, just that Ohno has a big burden to carry. But I guess no one is problem free, right?”    
  
Yes, that was true, but every burden was different and some were harder to work on, some were easier to handle. “What’s your burden, Sho-san?”    
  
Aiba scanned Sho’s reaction. First there was no move, till Sho coughed and shifted again on his chair. He fumbled with his hair, staring at the ceiling. “Why are you doing this to me?” He finally said. 

“What?”    
  
Sho smiled. “I am here because I was forced to, and I swore myself that I won’t tell you a single bit of my life, and now you make me talking to you, and I don’t know why.”    
  
“Maybe I am just a good psychologist.” Aiba shrugged.    
  
Sho laughed out loud. “Yes, maybe.” He kept silent for a moment, and Aiba had the feeling that he got lost in his own world. It must have been a sad and depressing world, because Sho’s eyes got small and dark and his hands worked nervously on the napkin Aiba had placed next to the cup of coffee. “I lost someone.” Sho’s voice was husky. He didn’t say that out loud easily, and Aiba wasn’t sure how often he had already talked about that openly.    
  
“Papa … ,” the shadow whispered. “You talk about it, finally.” The small shadow jumped up and down like she was happy that Sho finally spoke about it.    
  
Sho looked at the sea, his thoughts pulled him into an absent-minded stare.    
  
“Do you like the sea?” Aiba asked.    
  
Sho looked at him. “No. I hate it.”    
  
Aiba stood up and opened the door to the terrace. “Come.” 

Sho followed him down the path till they reached the small beach at Aiba’s piece of land.    
  
Aiba slipped out of his shoes and stepped into the cold water till it reached his knees. “Come in here.”    
  
Sho bounced from one foot to the other. “I can’t. I have the feeling of getting sick when I go into the water.”    
  
“You loved swimming and toying around so much, Papa. Don’t lose this, please.” The shadow splashed some water up. It looked like a wave had caught a stone, and Sho didn’t even realize that there was something wrong with the situation.    
  
Aiba turned to look at Sho. He stared at a buoy far outside in the water. It was going up and down with the waves. Suddenly Sho knelt down, his hands pressed on his ears, like he wanted everything around him to become silent. Aiba had thought about at least 100 possible reactions from Sho in their session today – this wasn’t one of the possible ones.    
  
He walked out of the water and knelt next to Sho, one hand touching Sho’s shoulder. “It was my fault,” Sho pressed out.    
  
“No, no, no!” The shadow stomped with the left foot. “It wasn’t.” Aiba felt everything spinning. The energy the shadow took from him was enormous.    
  
“Give me your hand, Sho-san.” Aiba had an idea. It was something he normally didn’t do, but Sho was so stuck in his role, he needed a push into the right direction.    
  
Sho looked at him before he carefully stretched his arm. Aiba took his and guided it to the water till their hands reached the cold and wet sand on the sea’s ground. Sho was trembling. He hated this feeling, Aiba could feel it in the way he clenched around Aiba’s hand. His body was tensed. He wouldn’t stand this situation for long.    
  
Aiba looked at the shadow, which knelt in the water. Its hand hovered a tiny bit over Aiba’s and Sho’s. Aiba pulled their hands up till Sho’s hand touched the shadows. Aiba had no idea if it would work out what he had planned.    
  
The shadow’s hand crossed Sho’s and he immediately pulled his hand back. “I hate the sea.”    
  
He sat back on the ground and stared at the horizon. Aiba sat next to him and they kept quiet for a moment. He thought the shadow would be able to get in contact with Sho, but it didn’t work out.    
  
“Why do you hate it that much?” Aiba asked after a while.    
  
Sho shook his head. “I … can’t …”    
  
“What are your hobbies?” Aiba changed the topic. He knew it was senseless to ask further. Sho wouldn’t be able to talk about anything today anymore. 

“What?” Sho blinked. He seemed confused. “I like reading a lot and I often go for a walk with our dog. I really enjoy long walks.”    
  
“Sho-san, can I give you an exercise today?” Aiba asked.    
  
Sho was thinking about what to say, but it seemed that he had found some trust in Aiba. Aiba didn’t know what he had done that this had happened out of the blue, but it made it for sure easier to work with Sho. “Okay,” he finally agreed.    
  
“I want you to take pictures when you go for a walk with your dog. I want you to make selfies, but you need to smile on the pictures and I want at least one picture a day where you have the sea in the background,” Aiba explained.    
  
He thought that Sho would immediately deny doing this, but for his surprise he agreed. “I’ll try.” This was definitely something new in their therapy.    
  
“Good, that’s what I wanted to hear. You can send me the pictures, or post it on Instagram, so I will be perfectly informed about your exercise.” Aiba stood up and they went back to the terrace.    
  
“We see each other on Friday, Sho-san.” Aiba guided Sho to the door.    
  
“Jun and I wanted to go shopping tomorrow, maybe you want to join?” Sho asked. He added a short “What?” when he saw Aiba staring at him in disbelieve. 

“Sho-san, you made clear that you really, really do not like me and you’re just here because you were forced to come here. So what’s this now?”    
  
Sho smiled a little. “Don’t know. Changed my mind.”    
  
The shadow pulled on Sho’s pants. “No, it was me. I send you a dream where I told you to listen to Aiba-kun. I told you in your dream that he can help you. That was all because of me.”    
  
“Thank you;” Aiba said more to the shadow than to Sho, but the other didn’t recognize that after all.

 

A/N: Hello everyone, I am back with this multi. What do you think about that step forward between Sho and Aiba? What wl come up next? Will Sho really send Aiba those selfies?  
Just one thing about the further time table: I will post two more chapters on next Sunday and the following, but then I am on holiday for three weeks where I'll probably make a posting break ;)  



	10. Chapter 10

** Title:  ** Behind the waves    
** Pairing:  ** Aiba Masaki/ Sakurai Sho; Matsumoto Jun/ Ohno Satoshi;    
** Rating:  ** PG-13 (R for this one)  
 **Warning:** none   
** Summary:  ** Aiba has a special ability – he can see shadows surrounding people who can’t get rid of their past and what had happened to them and the people they once loved. As psychologist it’s Aiba’s duty to help them getting rid of their bad experiences (and their shadows) to start a new life. 

 

It was late in the afternoon when Aiba called Ohno because of their meeting on the following day. Aiba had thought about over hours, and in the end he decided to make an experiment. 

But before he called Ohno he had to speak with Nino. “Hey, Ma-chan.” Nino immediately picked up the call. 

“Nin-chan, are you working tomorrow?” Aiba bit on his lower lip. 

“Let me see … Yes, till 1pm, afterwards I am free,” Nino said. 

Aiba breathed out. “Okay, can you come over to my place around 4pm? I think I’ll need some help in the afternoon.” 

“Sure, what do you want to do?” Aiba didn’t know what Nino would think about his plea, but in the end it didn’t matter. 

“I invite Jun together with Ohno tomorrow. And I think the shadow will get mad afterwards and maybe I’ll need a doctor to take care of me,” Aiba chuckled more because of desperation than fun. 

“Do you really think that this is a good idea?” Nino was worried, Aiba knew his voice so well. 

“No, for me it’s not, but for them, and that counts,” Aiba said honestly. 

Aiba could hear Nino sighing. “You should get a danger bonus for your job,” he grumbled. “But I will be there at 4pm.” 

Aiba felt relieved. “Thank you, Nin-chan.” 

“Yeah, see you,” Nino said. “And buy some good food.” 

Aiba sighed. “I will.” 

He hung up and walked up to Haro. “You need to hide tomorrow. The shadow will be really strong and evil.” 

The dog barked. She licked over Aiba’s hand and threw herself on the back to get some of her beloved strokes on her belly. Aiba payed her some more attention before he stood up to dial Ohno’s number. 

With the second ring Ohno picked up. “Aiba, what can I do for you?” 

“Ohno, hello. Can you do me a favour?” Aiba asked. 

“Sure, what do you need?” 

Aiba tilted his head. “I don’t exactly need something. I want to ask you to bring Jun along. I want to talk with the two of you.” 

He could hear Ohno breathing out deeply. “I’ll try convincing him, but we had a little fight and he isn’t in the mood to talk with me, but I’ll try.” 

“That’s perfect,” Aiba said. He was curious if Ohno would bring Jun along. He really hoped it. 

~~~

Aiba grunted when the first sunlight tickled his face. He had painted the half of the night and went to bed when it had been almost dawn again. He moved in his bed, earning a growl from Haro, who lay between his legs and a lick on his finger from Akira, who slept next to his pillow. “Too early in the morning,” he yawned. 

He took his towel and robbed out of the bed to the bathroom. He really looked terrible, but Aiba had never been a morning person. 

He brushed his teeth and tried not to fall asleep again. Then he made his way to the sea. He jumped into the cold water and started swimming. I didn’t take him long to feel awake and refreshed. 

He swam up to the buoy and took a hold of the rope there. He turned to look back to his house. Why did Sho look at the buoy? Why did he hate the sea that much? What the hell happened to him? 

Aiba wouldn’t give up till he had solved the riddle of Sho’s life. 

~~~

It was 2pm and Aiba already waited for Ohno to come to him. Soon later he could already feel a strange power pulling on his body. He couldn’t see anyone yet, but from the energy the shadow sent out, Jun was with Ohno. 

Aiba had baked three plates of cookies, because he was terribly afraid of what would happen, but he knew it would help Ohno – no, it needed to help him – there was no other way. 

Soon later there was a knock on Aiba’s door. He opened it and smiled at Jun and Ohno. “Come in.” 

They walked outside to the terrace. “You baked for 10 people.” Jun laughed when he saw the plates on the table. 

“I love sweets,” Aiba said and pulled out the chairs to offer them a seat. “Sit down, I bring some tea.” 

He breathed out deeply before he returned to the terrace with a big bowl of tea. “Please take yourself some tea if you want.” 

Aiba sat down towards them. “Thank you for coming, the both of you.” 

“No problem.” Jun smiled at him, but Ohno threw a dark glance at Jun. 

“What happened between the two of you?” Aiba asked. He could hear the shadow laughing. Of course it had been the shadow’s work. 

“We had a fight because Jun didn’t tell me that he was here at your place,” Ohno said angrily – it was untypically him. 

“No.” Jun smiled. “We fought because you fought with my brother because you don’t want to live here anymore.” Jun was calm, but Aiba was sure that he was burning in the inside. 

“Okay.” Aiba raised his hands. “Stop.” Both looked at him. 

“I don’t want to discuss why you fought in detail. I want to work with you together today. Maybe we’ll be able to solve some of your issues,” Aiba explained. 

“Oh no, you won’t make them getting closer again. I worked hard to make them drift apart.” The shadow hovered next to Aiba, touching his shoulder. Aiba felt already like fainting, but he needed to stay strong. 

“Work with you?” Ohno asked. 

Aiba smiled. “Yes.” He shifted on his place. “Of course you can always stop things I want you to do, but I really want to try something.” 

“Okay,” Jun said. “Everything you want.” 

Ohno blinked. “Really?” 

Jun looked at him. “Damn, Satoshi, I’d do everything to make you feel better again.” 

Ohno nodded and turned to Aiba. “Let’s do it.” 

The first step was made and Aiba could feel the shadow’s anger rising. He immediately took another bite of his cookie before he started talking again. “Ohno, please sit on this empty chair.” He pointed at the chair he had prepared before they had come. He had placed a second chair opposite the first where Ohno was about to sit down now. 

“You’re going to talk with Jun now, but he won’t sit opposite. For you he sits there, but not in reality, okay? He’ll stay here next to me, just listening to your conversation you’ll have with him – or better with yourself. When I tell you to switch place, you’ll sit on Jun’s chair and in this moment you’ll be him who answers, okay?” 

“I’ll talk with myself? And as Jun?” Ohno said astonished. 

“Yes, and I’ll be your moderator and ask some questions in between. Forget that we’re around, you are alone with Jun in this room. Do you think you can do this?” 

“I’ll try.” Ohno shrugged. 

“Good.” Aiba nodded. “Please Jun, do not interrupt, okay? I know it can be hard, but let him finish this conversation and afterwards there’ll be enough time to talk about everything.” 

Jun nodded. He bit on his lower lip. He was really nervous and Aiba really felt with him, because in the end even he was a little nervous about what would happen now. 

“You can close your eyes, Ohno, if it’s easier for you, but it would be better to look at your chair at the opposite,” Aiba said. 

“Okay,” Ohno replied. 

“Good, let’s start this.” Aiba leaned back against his chair, two cookies in his hands. He didn’t care about how that looked like, because he was sure that the shadow would get really annoyed. “Tell Jun why you are together with him.” 

Ohno sighed. He closed his eyes and swallowed before he looked at the empty seat. “Because I love him.” 

“No,” Aiba interrupted. “Don’t use the 3rd form, you talk with him directly.” 

“I love you Jun,” Ohno said again. “Really.” 

“Ohno, change place please,” Aiba said. 

Ohno did and stood up to sit back down at Jun’s place. “What do you say about it, Jun?” Aiba asked. 

“I …,” Ohno gulped. He waited some moments before he continued. “I don’t believe in your words.” 

“Oh-chan,” Jun whispered but Aiba immediately raised his hand to stop Jun from talking further. 

“Why do you think so, Jun?” Aiba asked. 

Ohno rubbed his hands nervously. “You don’t show me that I am the one you love. You are cold and so absent-minded, and you still just think of her.” 

“Please change your place,” Aiba said and waited till Ohno did so. “Ohno, what do you say to Jun’s words? Do you agree?” 

“I know I am a really complicated person and when the accident happened I had the feeling that I won’t be able to ever love someone again, till I met you.” Ohno’s voice broke. “I am just a fucking air-head with a big bag of sorrow and mess and worry and sadness on my back.” 

Aiba could see Jun moving. He wanted to stand up to get to Ohno, but Aiba wasn’t done with this. He could feel everything spinning. The shadow almost overwhelmed him. He took a sip of the tea and a piece of the cookie but it hardly helped. 

“Oh no, you don’t love someone else, tell me that this is not true,” the shadow whined. 

“Ohno, you said you killed someone. Does Jun know about it?” Aiba asked. He could see Jun’s shocked expression next to him. For a second Ohno looked at Jun, before he concentrated on the chair again, like he didn’t want to face Jun right now. 

“Jun, I still believe that the accident, which killed my wife, wasn’t only an accident. We had a terrible fight and even in the car we …” Ohno placed his head in his hands and started sobbing. 

“Aiba, please. I’ve never seen him like this before. Please stop here,” Jun plead. 

Aiba nodded. He was the end of his strength too, and he totally needed a bed. 

Jun stood up and hurried to Ohno, who wasn’t even able to say something. Jun looked really worried. Aiba was sure that Ohno wasn’t the teary type, even in their therapy he hardly showed any emotions. 

Jun placed his hands on Ohno’s shoulders shaking him softly. “Let’s go home and spend a nice day in the garden, okay?” Jun placed a kiss on Ohno’s forehead. 

“Okay.” Ohno smiled sadly. They stood up and thanked Aiba, promising that they’ll come back to him together on Saturday. 

Aiba closed the door and just heard the shadow from outside. “Nooo, you don’t win over me. You can’t steal him away from me. He is still mine, do you hear me!” 

Then everything around Aiba got black.

 

A/N: Hey everyone, how are you doing? Okay, I know this chapter was full of Juntoshi, but we need to solve their problem too, right? :D So what do you think? Did they make a step forward.  
Oh, and that thing with the chair is indeed a therapy, so I didn't developed that on my own ;)


	11. Chapter 11

** Title:  ** Behind the waves    
** Pairing:  ** Aiba Masaki/ Sakurai Sho; Matsumoto Jun/ Ohno Satoshi;    
** Rating:  ** PG-13  
 **Warning:** none   
** Summary:  ** Aiba has a special ability – he can see shadows surrounding people who can’t get rid of their past and what had happened to them and the people they once loved. As psychologist it’s Aiba’s duty to help them getting rid of their bad experiences (and their shadows) to start a new life. 

„Ma-chan? Oh god…,“ Aiba heard a vice calling his name. Then he felt something cold in his neck and a wet tongue on his cheek – and he hoped it wasn’t Nino’s.    
  
He slowly opened his eyes and blinked a few times to get used to the light. He saw Nino’s face next to Haro’s snout above him. “God, what’s the time?”    
  
Nino laughed hysterically. “You faint and the first thing you want to know is the time?”    
  
Aiba sat up. Everything was spinning. His head felt like on fire and his limbs hurt. “You have fever, you need to go to bed,” Nino ordered.    
  
“Yes, doctor,” Aiba tried joking, earning just a dark glance from Nino, who helped him up to bring him to bed. 

“God, was the meeting that bad?” Nino dragged Aiba to his bed. He coiled up there under his blanket and closed his eyes.    
  
“Worse.”    
  
“Okay.” Nino stroked over Aiba’s head. “I’ll go to get you some meds and I’ll make you some tea. You stay in bed, okay?” Nino pointed at Aiba and Haro took this as an order to jump into the bed, lying down next to Aiba, like she was protecting him. “Got it, the two of you stay here,” Nino said.    
  
Aiba just nodded but everything around him got blur again.    
  
~~~   
  
Aiba heard someone rummaging in his kitchen. He opened his eyes. It was still light outside, but it was already half past 7pm.    
  
Aiba walked outside. Nino cut some vegetables and had a big fish filet on the table which he had spiced. "Oh you are awake," Nino smiled at him. "What the hell did you think with inviting the two of them together?" Nino sighed. He looked worried and Aiba felt immediately sorry for pulling his friend into this situation, but he was terribly happy that Nino was here.    
  
"I am sorry," he finally said. "I really wanted to help them, and I am not sure, but I think it worked out at least a little bit."    
  
Nino turned on the oven and held his hand over the pan till the oil seemed to be warm enough. He took the fish and let it slip into the hot pan. The smell let Aiba's stomach grumble. He hadn't realized how hungry he actually was. "You are the best, Nin-chan." Aiba peeked over Nino's shoulder and stole a piece of carrot from the plate.    
  
"I know." Nino turned to him. "And even though I don't like what you did, you really helped them. Jun sent me a message, telling me that you are a hero."    
  
It made Aiba feeling proud. Something in him jumped in delight. "I am really happy for them, but their shadow is still hunting them, so I fear we aren't through this hell by now."    
  
“But don’t tell me that you want to have another session today or tomorrow?” Nino asked. He seemed worried, Aiba could see it in Nino’s eyes.    
  
“No, not a real session,” Aiba said. He earned a dark glance from Nino. “Sho-san asked me to join them for shopping.”    
  
Nino sighed. “Do you really think that this is a good idea? I mean you fainted some hours ago. You should really take a break. I don’t think that this is what you should do.”    
  
Aiba nibbled on his lower lip nervously. He looked up at Nino, who placed a cup of tea in front of him. “Oh god, Masa-chan,” Nino sighed. “You like Sho.”    
  
Aiba shook his head. “I don’t think anyone is able to like this moron.”    
  
Nino laughed out. “Okay, but you like what you see when you look at him.”    
  
Aiba was sure that his cheeks were flushed. Did he really start falling for Sho? He sighed.    
  
“What are you thinking about, Masa?” Nino wanted to know.    
  
“Everything is so complicated,” Aiba rubbed his face. “First of all he is completely stuck in whatever had happened to him. He’s a major jerk, even though it’s slowly getting better. Then he has this shadow hunting him. And there is my secret. I think I am not able to tell anyone about it.”    
  
“Maybe you should think about it,” Nino said. “I mean,” he continued when Aiba looked at him. “If you start opening up, maybe it helps you? You don’t need to be that closed and lonely anymore?”    
  
Aiba breathed out. He knew what Nino meant, but it annoyed him that he spoke it out loud. “I am not lonely.”    
  
“Masaki,” Nino took Aiba’s hand. “There are three guys you start being friends with, and don’t you think that it would be nice if they know about your ability?”    
  
Aiba shook his head. “Not until their shadows are gone. You know I never tell patients about it.”    
  
“Maybe you should stop thinking about them as patients and see them as friends,” Nino suggested.    
  
He was right, but Aiba was afraid. He didn’t want anyone to be a closer part of his life. He had come here to be on his own. He had Nino as friend and that was enough for him. And this whole stupid Sho-thing annoyed him. He had prevented falling for someone so long now, and now it happened naturally and he couldn’t do anything to make it stop. “He of all people,” Aiba murmured, earning a laugh from Nino.    
  
“You can’t decide your love, Masaki. I already told you back in school,” Nino laughed. “Promise me to think about being honest,” he added earnest again.    
  
Aiba nodded. “Okay.”    
  
~~~   
  
Aiba placed his bicycle in front of the small shopping mall. Against Nino’s protest Aiba came here to go shopping with Jun and Sho. Maybe he’d regret it later on, but for now it felt right. And in the end it was Nino who told him that Jun, Ohno and Sho slowly became his friends. Aiba smiled when he thought about Nino rolling his eyes. “You shouldn’t go, because you fainted some hours ago and you aren’t able to handle a bunch of shadows in a shopping mall,” had his words been.    
  
“Then you should accompany me to take care of me if something happens,” Aiba had said.    
  
“I hate shopping, and you know that,” Nino had replied.    
  
And now Aiba stood there at the entrance, a big grin covering his lips when he saw a slender figure coming up to him.    
  
“Here I am,” Nino grumbled.    
  
“I am glad you decided to accompany me,” Aiba chirped.    
  
Nino rolled his eyes. “As if I am here, because I want to be here. I am just here because someone needs to take care of you in case the shadows overstrain you, and since you are too stubborn to stay in bed.”    
  
Aiba wanted to say something when he saw Jun and Sho crossing the street to the mall. “Hey.” Jun waved at them. “Nice that you’re coming too, Nino. We need to do some clothe shopping today.”    
  
“I am going to kill you later,” Nino murmured at Aiba, who just nodded, staring at Sho, who looked like he hadn’t slept for almost one week.    
  
“How are you doing, Sho-san?” Aiba asked.    
  
“Tired, but okay. I spent some days in Tokyo, because … of businesses and yesterday I came back,” Sho explained.    
  
“You cut all the ropes to Tokyo, Papa. I don’t like that. You’ll hardly visit my grave anymore, right?” The shadow stood next to Sho, pulling on his jeans. It was sad, terrible sad, and Aiba felt like it pulled out Aiba’s good mood from his body to cover its own sad feeling. Aiba felt a little dizzy, his eyes got heavy and he needed to close them for a moment. “Here’s your energy drink,” Nino said, handing Aiba a bottle.    
  
“Thank you.” Aiba took it, ignoring Jun’s and Sho’s curious looks. They for sure had seen that something in Aiba had changed from one moment to the other, but no one said something.    
  
“So, what do you want to buy?” Nino asked. He wanted to say something to break the silence.    
  
“I need some pants, and Sho-kun needs some shirts and shoes, and since you can’t let him go shopping on his own, we accompany him,” Jun explained. “And decide what he shall buy,” Jun added with a laugh.    
  
Aiba could see Sho blushing. It was rare to see him like this. He fell out of his numb and cold attitude, and Aiba liked to see this private – not forced to visit a therapist – character. “I am really not that bad dressed,” Sho complained.    
  
“No, you are worse,” Jun rolled his eyes. “How about you, Aiba?”    
  
“Me?” Aiba asked. “I don’t like shopping much, but I love clothes. I just mostly do online shopping.”    
  
“Online?” Jun asked. “That’s nothing for me. I need to feel the material, to see the colours of the items in real before I buy them.”    
  
Aiba shrugged. He loved that too, but he couldn’t go out. He just couldn’t tell this to Jun. Aiba could see Nino’s eyes resting on him. _I told you to be honest makes everything easier_ , that’s what Nino’s look told Aiba. Yes, Nino was right, but Aiba couldn’t. He was afraid that they’d call him fraud and leave him behind. That they didn’t want to see him again. God, that’s why Aiba never wanted to have any friends at all. That was the reason he had come here. He wanted to have his house, his animals and some patients he could work with. But with the first day he had got to know Ohno, everything had changed for him. He liked those guys from the very first beginning.    
  
“You can send it back if you don’t like it,” Aiba said.    
  
“That’s not the same.” Jun had his arms crossed, shaking his head. Aiba would agree immediately, but he couldn’t.    
  
“How about drinking a coffee first?” Nino suggested. A lame try to sit down and don’t think about running from shop to shop. Aiba knew his friend so well.    
  
“That’s the best idea,” Sho agreed immediately. He didn’t seem to like shopping either, so Aiba didn’t wonder about his bouncy agreement to Nino’s suggestion.    
  
Jun shook his head with a small smile curling around his lips. “You really are something, the both of you.”    
  
“I am also not the coffee shop type, but my stomach tells me that I need a cookie, so maybe we should go for Nino’s plan to drink a nice cup of double-caramel-white-chocolate-strawberry frappe,” Aiba said. He didn’t go to the coffee shop often, but when he came here, he always drank the sweetest and unhealthiest drink on the menu.    
  
“You’re kidding me?” Jun laughed. “That is something you can’t drink. It’s so sweet, it makes my stomach rebel against it immediately. I only know one person on earth who likes that stuff.” Jun looked at Sho and started pointing at him.    
  
“Hey, sometimes you need something sweet. And you know it was Koko’s favourite drink,” Sho first smiled, but then he froze. Also Jun seemed to swallow about the name Sho had spoken out loud.    
  
“Oh, a past love of yours?” Nino joked.    
  
Aiba looked at Nino, shaking his head just a little bit so that Jun and Sho didn’t realize it. “Shadow,” Aiba formed the word with his lips without saying it.    
  
“You never said that name out loud since …,” Jun wondered.

 

**A/N:** I am back :D :D *lol* Sorry for the long posting break, but first I was on holiday and last week I got sick and had to stay in bed. I wasn't really able to write.  
So Sho and Aiba went shopping together? A step closer to each other? And also Aiba needs to think of his life. What shall he do? :D  
I am curious what you say about that chapter. :D 

  
  
  
  
  
  



	12. Chapter 12

** Title:  ** Behind the waves    
** Pairing:  ** Aiba Masaki/ Sakurai Sho; Matsumoto Jun/ Ohno Satoshi;    
** Rating:  ** PG-13  
 **Warning:** none   
** Summary:  ** Aiba has a special ability – he can see shadows surrounding people who can’t get rid of their past and what had happened to them and the people they once loved. As psychologist it’s Aiba’s duty to help them getting rid of their bad experiences (and their shadows) to start a new life.

 

  
“Let’s go.” Sho walked up to the coffee shop on the other side of the mall. He walked fast and the others had trouble following him.    
  
“What the hell was this?” Nino whispered at Jun, who walked between Nino and Aiba.    
  
“I have no idea. He didn’t say her name out loud since …,” Jun stopped talking. Maybe he wasn’t allowed to say something, or he respected Sho’s privacy too much to tell anyone about Sho’s life. Probably it was a mixture of both.    
  
“Shall I try talking with him?” Aiba wanted to know. He knew it was probably senseless, because Sho had never opened up to anyone, but maybe it was worth a try. They made some steps forward during the last weeks, so maybe he could break through the wall.    
  
“I don’t think that he’ll talk to anyone. Just get our coffees and talk about, I don’t know, the weather?” Jun suggested.    
  
“That won’t make anything better,” Aiba said. “He should open up, not bottle everything up inside.”    
  
“It’s not that easy,” Jun sighed. “You don’t know how often I’ve tried to make him talk about what burdens him, but he is so closed, it’s impossible to get through his walls.”    
  
“Is your relationship alright again?” Aiba wanted to know. After Jun had had the fight with Sho, he had never talked about it again, and Aiba didn’t want to ask. When Sho had told him that Jun would go along with him, Aiba had wondered about it.    
  
“It’s never alright, Aiba. But I guess we are both masters in pushing our thoughts and feelings to the side and do like nothing had ever happened between us. We do this since we had been children,” Jun explained. “It had never been a matter of talking with each other, and I think it would feel ridiculous if we start it right now. We are both not used to it.”    
  
“But you are able to talk openly with Ohno-kun?” Aiba asked.    
  
Jun smiled at him. “It’s something different.” He shrugged. “Sometimes it’s also hard to talk with Oh-chan about certain things.” Jun looked at Aiba. “But yes, you are right, it’s easier to talk with Ohno about things than talking with Sho about it.”    
  
“They are really different, aren’t they?” Aiba asked. He knew he was talking like the therapist again, but he couldn’t change that. He had always been like this.    
  
Nino glanced at him, visibly annoyed about Aiba’s questions. He knew he’d had to listen to a bunch of probably not so nice words from Nino later on. _Leave the work at home_ – that’s what Nino always said, but it wasn’t that easy for Aiba.    
  
Jun shook his head. “You might think that way, but they have more similarities you might guess. They are both pretty closed and probably a mess inside. They are both really bad in handling problems, and instead of searching for help and talking about everything, they lock themselves. The only difference is that Ohno is the one who suffers in complete silence, while Sho is the one who starts yelling around. He’s the one who gets unfair to others, just because he is not content with his life.”    
  
Aiba looked at Sho, who walked a few meters in front of them. He didn’t look back, but Aiba wasn’t sure if he really didn’t hear what Jun had said. Aiba tilted his head. The small shadow hovered behind Sho, gripping his leg. “Papa, stop. Turn around. Listen to them. Listen to this tall guy. He knows how to help you.”    
  
Aiba smiled. Somehow he liked this little girl, even though she pulled on his energy. “Hey, Sho-san,” Aiba said. The other turned to him, his cheeks rosy. Aiba hurried up to him. Nino and Jun stayed behind a little. Maybe they thought they should keep away from them because Aiba would like to talk with Sho as his therapist, and yeah … they were right.    
  
“What, Aiba-san?” Sho sounded unfriendly. Maybe he feared that Aiba would ask about this name, but Aiba didn’t need to ask. He knew that it was this little girl, he didn’t need to know anything further for now.    
  
“I wanted to thank you for the selfie you sent me yesterday. I completely forgot about answering you. I had some health troubles and so I forgot about it,” Aiba said with a smile.    
  
“Oh, no problem,” Sho said nervously.    
  
“Where have you taken the picture?” Aiba wanted to know. In the background of the picture had been a tall tree with the sea next to it.    
  
Sho tilted his head. “It’s up on the small mountain, you know on the other side of the town, down there where the street ends in this beautiful field with flowers.” He put his hands in his pockets. “It’s one of my favourite places. You have a nice overview and it’s calm over there. I am able to let my dog run free and enjoy some time without people around me.”    
  
Aiba nodded. Maybe he and Sho weren’t that different after all – just that their reasons for wanting to be alone were different. “It’s really a nice picture. I wanted to thank you for taking your exercise earnest.”    
  
Sho bowed. “No problem.”    
  
~~~   
  
They sat in the coffee shop looking at each other. The mood was still strange, even though they didn’t talk about Sho’s outburst of the child’s name anymore.    
  
“What do you plan on weekend?” Nino asked no one in particular. He just wanted the conversation to go on.    
  
“I’ll need to make some shopping, but the rest of the time I’ll stay at home,” Aiba smiled.    
  
Sho twisted the spoon in his cup. “I don’t know by now. Maybe I’ll go for a short trip to the mountain. I have a friend here.”    
  
Jun laughed. “You don’t talk about one of us, right? Because I don’t think we are the persons who love climbing a mountain, especially when there are 30 degree outside.”    
  
“No,” Sho said, shaking his head. “It’s an old school friend. Maybe I ask him to guide me to the top with some beer and some sandwiches.”    
  
Something in Aiba clenched. He hated himself for this feeling of jealousy rising in him. There was no reason to feel like this, because there was nothing going on between him and Sho. “Sounds nice,” Aiba just said. “Don’t forget the selfies.”    
  
Sho nodded at him. “I will take some pictures.”    
  
Aiba could feel Nino’s eyes resting on him. And he knew that sight. It was Nino’s ‘are you insane’ look. “And you Jun-kun?” Aiba tried to put the focus on the other.    
  
“Oh, I need to work, but I think me and Oh-chan will stay at home in the evenings,” Jun said. It really seemed to get better between them.    
  
“Oh, talking about Ohno, he’s calling right now,” Jun excused and stood up to leave the coffee shop.    
  
Aiba heard Nino and Sho talking about various things, but he couldn’t concentrate, his focus was on Jun, who ran up and down in front of the shop nervously, his phone in his hands. He nibbled on his lower lip nervously. That didn’t mean something good.    
  
“What’s going on out there?” Sho asked, looking at Jun. “I hope they don’t fight again.”    
  
Aiba looked at Sho. He had to smile a bit when he saw Sho’s eyes. He cared about Jun’s happiness, but he was so stuck in his problems, that he couldn’t show it to the other. But these eyes told more than every word Sho could use. “I am sure everything is okay,” Aiba said.    
  
“I will go and look after him.” Nino stood up and left the room.    
  
“You have some major problems with your brother, right? But you care about him, I can see it in your eyes,” Aiba said.    
  
Sho laughed out. “What, are you a visionary?” He twisted the cup nervously. Aiba pulled one eyebrow up. Sho rolled his eyes and sighed. “Yes, you are right, I care about him, but we are stuck in old patterns and I don’t know how to overcome it.”    
  
“I am always right,” Aiba giggled. He wanted to lighten the mood between them, because he already felt Sho tensing up again.    
  
“Oh, yes, I forgot, sorry, Master Aiba-san,” Sho laughed. Aiba loved that smile, but it was far too rare. Aiba would do everything to change that though.    
  
“What happened that you got stuck in this situation?” Aiba asked.    
  
Sho leaned back, his hands rubbing his face. “Man, you never stop being a therapist.”    
  
“Nope.” Aiba shook his head with a smile.    
  
He looked at Aiba. There was a sad sparkle in Sho’s eyes. “It happened so long ago.”

 

**A/N** : Hello everyone, I had to make a break last week, because I needed to learn, but I am done with writing the story now, so I can post it till the end, every week from now on :D We have only a few chapters left, so what do you think? What will happen? Any suggestions?  
I think there will come some twists you don't count with ;) *evillaugh*  
So let's see....

  
  
  



	13. Chapter 13

** Title:  ** Behind the waves    
** Pairing:  ** Aiba Masaki/ Sakurai Sho; Matsumoto Jun/ Ohno Satoshi;    
** Rating:  ** PG-13  
 **Warning:** none   
** Summary:  ** Aiba has a special ability – he can see shadows surrounding people who can’t get rid of their past and what had happened to them and the people they once loved. As psychologist it’s Aiba’s duty to help them getting rid of their bad experiences (and their shadows) to start a new life.

“What happened long ago?” Aiba wanted to know. 

Sho had the cup in his hands, even though there wasn’t anything in it anymore. He was nervous, Aiba could see it. Sho’s fingers moved up and down the cup. Probably he hadn’t spoken about the reasons for his cold relationship with his brother very often. 

“We were still children, but I had always been a pretty strong character. You know, I always thought that I am better than others,” Sho explained. 

Aiba choked on his coffee. Did the other really admit this right now? “You are really honest today, Sho-san.” 

The other smiled at him. “It doesn’t matter now. You know, I’ve seen my brother after he and Ohno had visited you. And believe me.” Sho leaned forward. “I have never seen him so happy since he’s together with Ohno. I really believe that they love each other, but Ohno is difficult, and you helped them. I don’t know how, but you made what no one had managed before.” 

Aiba was sure that he blushed because of these words. “Thank you Sho-san.” 

Sho leaned back again, his hands resting behind his head. “That’s why I tell you this, and maybe – maybe you have a way out for me and my brother? Every step closer would be a success.” 

“Tell me the reasons, and I can tell you if I am able to help you,” Aiba suggested, earning a nod from the other. 

“We always had a complicated relationship. Jun and I are actually half-brothers. My father had married again after my mother had died. I was four years old back then, and I totally didn’t want to accept that I had a brother out of the blue. Everything started with more or less harmless jokes and normal teasing between brothers, but something in me never wanted to accept that he is part of the family.” Sho looked out of the window, where Jun was still talking with Ohno on the phone, walking up and down nervously. “It got worse when we grew bigger. And one day it escalated. I really can’t remember what we fought about. It was for sure something unimportant.” Sho stopped for a moment. “At one point I got so angry that I slapped Jun, and that was not the only thing. I told him that he is not wanted in the family, and that I wish that he’d be dead.” 

Aiba shook his head. “And Jun never forgave you?” 

“He did, but he was still hurt, and I think he still is. And you know, I am really embarrassed for what I did back then, and I think if I’d be at Jun’s place, I would have never forgiven me.” Sho smiled sadly. 

“Have you ever talked about it openly?” Aiba wanted to know. 

Sho shook his head. “We never talked about it again. It’s like a deadly secret between us.” 

“And it lies heavy on you. The both of you – and you’ll never get out of it, when you aren’t talking about it openly. You need to get rid of the past. What had happened between you happened. You can’t change it anymore. You need to look forward,” Aiba explained. Sho’s behaviour was stupid and he could understand Jun’s reaction, but he was sure that talking about it, would help the both of them. 

Sho leaned forward again. He almost whispered, like he feared that someone would listen to them. “And you think we can overcome it?” 

Aiba smiled. He didn’t know the both of them for long, but he was sure that behind their stubbornness they were all good-hearted. “Yes,” he said. 

“I really hope you are right, because you know, my brother means a lot to me, even though I could never tell him this,” Sho said. 

Aiba smiled. Sho’s wall broke, and there came up another man, like he totally changed just because of some small changes in his life. Aiba hoped that this would go on like this. 

“Hey Jun, I want to …” Sho started, but stopped. Aiba looked up. He had been in his thoughts and didn’t even realize that Jun came back to the shop, followed by Nino. 

“What happened?” Aiba asked. 

Jun looked pale and his hands were trembling. Aiba stood up when he didn’t get an answer from Jun. He pulled on Jun’s shoulders. “Hey, Jun, what happened?” Aiba stared into Jun’s eyes. They looked empty. 

But Jun didn’t react. His eyes were teary and he just breathed out. Aiba felt Sho at his side, pushing him away slowly. “Jun, look at me.” Sho said harshly. 

Aiba wanted to say something, but it seemed to work, Jun slowly got out of his numbness. In this case Sho’s rude behaviour was a great help. “Satoshi called me, he is at this field with the flowers where everything happened, and he wants to …” Jun stopped. 

“What does he want to do?” Sho asked, shaking Jun slightly. “Jun, damn, talk with me,” Sho yelled when Jun slipped back into his absent-minded state. 

“I think he’s going to do something stupid,” Nino hooked in. 

Aiba felt his heartbeat rising. The street with the flowers – it’s where everything had happened. “Okay, Nino, you have a car, bring us there, now.” 

Aiba stepped forward, pulling on Jun’s arm. “Come now,” he commanded. 

They ran out of the building. “Down the street. I don’t live far from here,” Nino panted. “We should be there in two minutes.” 

Aiba wasn’t sporty, but the adrenalin spread in his body. He had a bad feeling about Ohno. If the shadow had gotten more aggravated it was maybe able to influence Ohno’s mood and behaviour. He just hoped that he’d get Ohno out of the shadow’s vicious circle. 

Nino drove far too fast down the street, but for Aiba it couldn’t be too fast. “Nino, don’t drive directly to Ohno. Maybe he reacts out of stress if we blindside him. Park here, we’ll run the last meters,” Aiba said. He had had some patients in past who reacted because of stress, and Ohno stood pretty close to the street, and there were a lot of cars driving up and down. 

“I wait her. Maybe you should wait too, Sho. If four people run over to him, it’s maybe too much,” Nino suggested. 

Sho looked at Jun, who nodded. “Yes, it’s the best. Aiba-chan, would you come with me?” 

“Sure,” Aiba nodded. “Let’s go.” 

~~~

They reached Ohno, who stood next to the street. He watched the cars passing him. They drove fast. He seemed to think about stepping on the street, probably ending his life with this. 

Aiba looked back at the others. They stood next to Nino’s car, looking at them. It was strange that Aiba thought about it in this moment, but Sho’s shadow wasn’t at Sho’s side. He looked around. 

The small girl stood next to Aiba. It was shy, but with every second it got stronger. “Go away,” it yelled at Ohno’s shadow. 

The woman turned and laughed. “No, no way.” She placed her hand on Ohno’s shoulder. “He follows me now.” 

“No,” the girls ran up to her, pulling on her arm. 

“Ohno, please step back,” Aiba said slowly. 

Ohno turned round. “It’s everything too much, I can’t take this anymore.” He looked at Jun. “I am sorry.” 

“Oh-chan, please. Let’s go home together.” Jun raised his hand and wanted to take Ohno’s, but the other turned to the street again, some tears running down his face. 

He stepped forward and looked left and right. “I am sorry,” he said again before he started running on the street. 

Jun jumped immediately after him, pushing Ohno’s back. 

A loud noise echoed, but Aiba couldn’t see anything. The both shadows had taken everything from him, and everything around him got black.

**A/N:** Hello everyone, a happy New Year to you out there  <3 I hope you had a nice New Year's Eve ;)  
We are almost at the end of this story, so here we are on top of it. What do you think happened now? What will happen next? I am sorry for the cliffhanger, but I am really curious what you think now ;)  
See you next week in the next chapter <3


	14. Chapter 14

** Title:  ** Behind the waves    
** Pairing:  ** Aiba Masaki/ Sakurai Sho; Matsumoto Jun/ Ohno Satoshi;    
** Rating:  ** PG-13  
 **Warning:** none   
** Summary:  ** Aiba has a special ability – he can see shadows surrounding people who can’t get rid of their past and what had happened to them and the people they once loved. As psychologist it’s Aiba’s duty to help them getting rid of their bad experiences (and their shadows) to start a new life.

 

Aiba opened his eyes. He leaned against the tree right next to the street. Nino was next to him, shaking him slowly. “Ma-chan, thanks god, you are awake.”    
  
“What …” Aiba turned to the other side. There was an ambulance and Sho running up and down, yelling with the ambulance men. “Jun, Ohno,” Aiba pressed out.    
  
Nino looked sad. “Jun got hit by a car. Ohno is okay. Jun had pushed him to the other side. But he’s totally absent-minded. He can’t remember what had happened to him. He can’t remember how he got here. And he got a slap from Sho.”    
  
Aiba tried standing up. “How’s Jun?”    
  
Nino helped him. “No idea, he is on the way to the hospital. No one was able to say something. I was at his side at first. His heartbeat was slow and he was unconsciousness, but I think he’ll make it. Jun is a strong person.”    
  
Aiba stopped moving for a moment when he saw Sho yelling with Ohno, who stood next to him, looking small and broken. “Nino, maybe you were right. It’s time to talk about my ability. It’s time to explain what’s going on here. That wasn’t Ohno’s will to die here. It was his shadow.”    
  
Nino blinked at him. “You mean the shadow made this?”    
  
Aiba nodded. He looked around. He could see the small shadow standing not far away from him. Aiba knelt down. “You helped him, right?” It was the first time Aiba talked with a shadow directly, but it was out of a good reason he did this here.    
  
The girl nodded. “The woman is gone. I destroyed her.” Aiba blinked. He had never experienced this, but the shadow turned into a real person. The small girl had a red skirt with a white blouse underneath it. Her hair was bound to a pigtail. She had a teddy bear on her arm.    
  
“That’s good,” Aiba smiled. 

“What?” Nino asked. Aiba was glad that Nino already knew his secret. Otherwise it would have become really difficult now.    
  
“The girl destroyed Ohno’s shadow.” Aiba looked at Nino. “Please don’t ask me, I have never heard of something like this before.”    
  
“Okay, I think I don’t understand anything here anymore. Let’s go to the others and then we make a plan together. We should hurry before Sho kills Ohno.” Nino pointed at Sho, who ran up and down, yelling with Ohno.    
  
“Okay,” Aiba said. He turned to the small girl before he started walking. “Can you stay at my side? I think I’ll maybe need you later on.”    
  
The girl nodded at him. Aiba didn’t know why his brain was able to work in such a moment, but he had a plan. They hurried to get to Sho and Ohno.    
  
“Aiba,” Sho said. He looked at him. “Are you okay? I am sorry that I didn’t come up to look after you, but you know …” Sho said.    
  
Aiba raised his hands. “I am okay. How about driving to the hospital?”    
  
Sho nodded. He looked at Aiba, who pulled on Ohno’s arm. “He shall come with us?” Sho asked.    
  
“Yes, because he is part of your family,” Aiba said. “And I think we all need to talk with each other, so come on now. It’s not the time to fight now. We need to get to Jun.”    
  
It seemed to work, because neither Sho nor Ohno said something. They walked up to Nino’s car to get away from there. The police had ended their questioning and the broken car was already taken away from the street. Luckily the driver didn’t get hurt. He just got under observation because of the shock.    
  
~~~   
  
Their way to the hospital was silent. No one said a word, and the air felt thin and dark. Aiba looked at the empty space next to him. The small girl sat there, her head leaning against Sho. For Aiba’s surprise she didn’t pull any energy from him at the moment. She was beautiful. She had wonderful brown eyes, and a sweet smile.    
  
They hurried to get into the hospital, and immediately Aiba knew why he hated these places. There were shadows everywhere around him. He tried to ignore them, but he could nevertheless feel them.    
  
“Go away,” Aiba looked down right next to him. The girl stood there, pointing at the shadows around them. They stepped backwards and step by step each and every disappeared. Aiba blinked. He really had never heard something like this before.    
  
Aiba formed a silent thank you around his lips and made the girl smile at him. “Papa is afraid, and I want you to get to my uncle. He needs all of you.”    
  
They reached the door to the emergency room. “How is he?” Sho asked the first nurse coming along.    
  
“I am not allowed to say something for now, please wait a little longer,” the nurse said, guiding them to a waiting room.    
  
For Aiba’s surprise they were alone in the room. “I work here,” Aiba heard Nino saying. He turned to see Nino’s touching Sho’s shoulder. “I go and try to get some information. I’ll be back soon.” Sho nodded at Nino.    
  
Before Nino left, he looked at Aiba, nodding at him encouraging. He knew what his friend wanted to tell Aiba. Now was the time to talk about everything.    
  
Ohno sat on one of the chairs. He looked at the ground, not reacting to any noise around him.    
  
“How can you do something like this? If you want to end your life, then do it, but don’t call my brother and pull him into this shit,” Sho screamed. His cheeks were red and he was furious.    
  
Aiba raised his hands. “Okay, can I please say something?”    
  
“Oh no, no therapeutic stuff. Not now. Don’t tell me that Ohno needs help and that he is oh so poor. He almost killed Jun, or maybe worse. Maybe he already killed him.” Sho’s voice was high pitched.    
  
“I can’t remember,” Ohno said. “I swear, I can’t remember.”    
  
“Oh come on, fool someone else,” Sho blurred out.    
  
Aiba stood up. “Shut up now.” Aiba wasn’t the type who got enraged easily, but he knew that there was no other chance that Sho would listen to him.    
  
Sho looked at him, his eyes dark. “Okay, talk.” He sat down on one of the chairs, looking at Aiba.    
  
Aiba breathed out. “Okay, I believe Ohno-kun. It wasn’t you, it was your dead wife pulling you into this.”    
  
“Are you going insane now?” Sho laughed out loud. “Did you get an apoplexy during the accident?”    
  
Aiba had thought about a reaction like this. He wasn’t prepared to a talk like this, because except Nino he had never talked about it before, but this was for Ohno’s sake, and in the end also for Jun’s sake. “No. I am not insane.”    
  
“Listen to me,” Aiba said. He sat next to Ohno, taking Ohno’s hand.    
  
Ohno had looked at him with his mouth wide open. “My dead wife? I have never told you that it was my wife.”    
  
Aiba smiled. He squeezed Ohno’s hand to show him that he was on his side – if there would be sides in this whole mess. “She stayed here because you couldn’t let go. She got stronger because she was jealous and she wasn’t able to let you go on with someone else.” Aiba looked from Ohno to Sho. “And she took your senses. She wanted to make you follow her.”    
  
Ohno blinked. Aiba wasn’t sure if he believed what he had told him or not.    
  
“You really are insane. You are a scoundrel,” Sho said. “Do you listen to the nonsense you talk about?”    
  
“Papa…,” the girl sighed. She looked directly at Aiba before she jumped down from the seat next to Sho. She walked up to Aiba.    
  
“I am Koko. I am Sho’s daughter,” she said.    
  
Aiba knelt down. “Nice to meet you, Koko.” 

“Oh no.” Sho jumped up. “Don’t play tricks on me. I called that name accidentally, don’t fool me now with it. You are the worst Aiba-san.”    
  
“I was nine years old when I died,” she explained.    
  
Aiba looked up at Sho. “She was nine years old when she died.”    
  
Sho shook his head. “No, I don’t know where you got that information from, but stop doing that, you fool.”    
  
“My father and my mother got divorced one year after my death. I think I am the reason for it, because they couldn’t take it anymore,” Koko said.    
  
“You got divorced after your daughter’s death. She thinks that she was the reason,” Aiba said. He had no idea if it was the right way, but he had to try it. There was no other chance to make Sho believe him.    


**A/N:** Here we are again, and only one chapter left. x_X  I am sorry for hruting Jun here  <3 What do you think? Is he alright? And what about Sho? Wll he believe in Aiba's words?  



	15. Chapter 15

„Where did you get that information from? The internet? My ex-wife?” Sho yelled. His breath had gotten faster.

Koko looked at her father. “He is still so angry. You know he always called me butterfly. We played a lot together. Our favourite game was ‘I found something new’. We developed it together.” She pulled a small flower out of her bag. “We searched for flowers or other things in nature and afterwards we sat in the library, searching for the names and details about the things we collected. Oh, and this flower – it’s a guinea-hen flower, we didn’t tell mommy about it. It was our secret, because this is a rare and special flower.”

Aiba stood up. He stepped closer to Sho, who walked backwards. “You called her butterfly and your favourite game was ‘I found something new’.”

Sho shook his head. “No. Please stop it.”

“Guinea-hen flower – it was your secret,” Aiba said. He could see Sho’s eyes got teary. He sobbed.

“Please Aiba-san, if you are a fool, stop it,” Sho begged.

Aiba stepped closer, touching Sho’s shoulder. “Sho-san, I would never, never play with someone’s feelings – especially not in this case.” He looked at Sho closely. “I just want you to understand that Ohno wasn’t aware of what he was doing. He tells the truth. He can’t remember about it.”

“I don’t know … Aiba-san, you know how this sounds? You tell me here that you are a medium or something like this, and you want that I believe you, while my brother’s boyfriend almost killed my brother. And you tell me he didn’t know it? It’s hard to believe this you know.” Sho said. He walked up to Ohno’s place, sitting next to him. “Ten years ago I would have punched you to death, the both of you, but I don’t know. Maybe I changed, maybe I got more good-hearted.” Sho smiled sadly.

“Sho-kun, I would never pull Jun in something like this. I love him, you should know that,” Ohno tried to explain.

“I know,” Sho said. Aiba was astonished how calm Sho suddenly was.

“I am overstrained. So can we please wait till we know how Jun is, and I think afterwards we need to settle all things,” Sho rubbed his face. “I feel numb and tired, and I can’t make a clear mind right now.”

Aiba nodded. “Sounds good.”

The door opened and Nino came back into the room. He smiled at them. “Good news,” he said.

Sho and Ohno jumped up immediately. “What’s with him?” Both said unison.

“He has a broken leg and some broken ribs and a broken hand, some cuts on his forehead and arm, but everything else is okay. He had been lucky. The man drove slow, so he didn’t hit him with full speed,” Nino said.

“Can we visit him?” Sho asked.

“He wants to see Aiba first, don’t ask me why, but yes, we are able to visit him.” Nino looked at Aiba.

“Me?” Aiba asked.

Nino nodded. “I bring you to him.”

Aiba looked back at Sho and Ohno apologetically, before he slipped out of the door.

~~~

Aiba opened the door to Jun’s room. “I wait here,” Nino said.

Aiba nodded at him. “I am so happy that Jun is okay,” Aiba said before he slipped into Jun’s room.

Jun lay on the bed, his leg and arm in a cast. “Hey, Masaki,” Jun said.

Aiba sat on the chair next to Jun’s bed. “God, we were so afraid.”

Jun smiled. He tried to move on the bed, but he was only able to shift a little bit. “You know, Koko told me that she is able to talk with you.”

Aiba blinked. Did Jun really say that right now? Was he really talking about Sho’s daughter? “What?”

Jun laughed out. “Masaki, I know that Oh-chan can’t remember about that accident. I am aware of his wife hunting him. But she is gone now, right?”

Aiba had his mouth wide open. “You …” Aiba stuttered. “No.”

“Did I make you speechless?” Jun looked at him.

“Honesty, I don’t understand a word,” Aiba admitted. “Are you a medium?”

Jun nodded. “Since childhood, but I never told anyone about it. And I always thought I am the only one.”

Aiba had to laugh. That really couldn’t be. “I shocked your brother right before with my ability.”

“You told him about it?” Jun asked.

Aiba nodded. “I had to, because he was about to kill Ohno.”

Jun shook his head. He had a smile around his lips. Aiba was glad that Jun was really not that badly hurt. “It’s amazing that he believed in your words.”

“Koko helped me with it,” Aiba admitted.

“Oh,” Jun said. “You know, I would have helped them, but they didn’t listen to my tries, and I was too afraid to tell them the truth, because who would believe in this?”

“Shall we call the others, because I think Sho and Ohno are already running mad outside. They want to see you.” Aiba stood up to get to the door. “And let’s talk about everything when you are out of here, okay?”

Jun nodded with a smile. “I am happy that I’ve found a second person like me.”

“Me too.”

~~~

“Jun.” Sho headed to the room. “God, I was so afraid.”

“I am okay,” Jun said. He looked at Ohno, who walked into the room behind Sho. Aiba could see his gaze lowered, he was nervous and tensed. Aiba gave him an encouraging smile.

“Satoshi, it’s okay.” Jun raised his healthy hand. “Come here.”

Ohno seemed irritated. Maybe he had counted with Jun scolding him, yelling at him, throwing him out. He stepped to the bed and took Jun’s hand in his. “I know that it wasn’t you who acted like this.”

With this Jun started explaining what he was, and Aiba hid a grin when he saw Sho’s face getting pale again. It was hard for him to believe this story, but now it was far too much for him.

~~~

Two days later Aiba roamed through his kitchen. He searched for his cookies he had bought some days ago. “Haro I am getting confused. I had this package somewhere here, but where?”

Haro barked happily, her tail wiggling left and right. She jumped up to the door when there was a knock. Aiba cursed when he hit his head on the cupboard and walked up to open. “Sho-san?”

The other raised his hands with some self-made cookies on it. “Can I come in?”

Aiba looked at the plate. “Did you make them?”

Sho nodded. “My tenth try succeeded.”

Aiba laughed. “Come in.”

They sat on the balcony. Sho looked at the sea. “I still hate the sea, but you know that.”

“No, I don’t know it. I don’t even know what happened back then,” he said. It was the truth. He hadn’t talked with Koko about the cause of her death.

Sho blinked at him. “I thought you know my whole past?”

“No.” Aiba shook his head.

Jun was still in hospital, but he should be released in a few days, and Ohno had spent almost every minute at Jun’s bed. Nino was back at work on a long weekend shift, and Sho had called him – for Aiba’s surprise.

Sho sighed. His eyes had changed so much from the first time he had been here. They weren’t that dark anymore, and his whole body language wasn’t tensed. “Four years ago I made a boat trip with my family. My daughter, Koko, jumped into the sea and started diving around there. She was a good swimmer, but suddenly she was gone.” Sho’s voice broke. “I jumped into the water. I searched for her. And I found her. Her leg got caught in the buoy’s rope. It was too late.” Sho looked down.

“I am sorry about that, Sho-san,” Aiba said.

“Is she here right now?” Sho wanted to know.

Aiba nodded. He looked at the girl next to Sho. She stood there, smiling. “I am so happy that he finally talks about it. Aiba-san, please take care of him.” She bowed.

“Everything is a mess right now. The whole thing with Jun, and my own life. But I decided that it’s time to change.” Sho looked up to the sky. “And I am sure you’ll watch over me, Koko, no matter where you are. I really love you, always.”  
Aiba could feel the tears in him rising. He could get really emotional. “Bye, Papa, we’ll see each other again one day. I love you too.” She waved happily. “Bye, bye, Aiba-chan.”

“Bye, Koko,” Aiba said. “She goes now. She knows that you are alright now. She loves you and one day you’ll see each other again.”

Tears were running down Sho’s face. Aiba wasn’t sure if Sho had ever been that emotional before.  
Koko’s body faded till she was gone completely.

“Aiba-chan,” it was one of the few times Sho called him like this. “Would you come with me to Tokyo one day, visiting Koko’s grave?”

Aiba nodded. He’d love doing this.

~~~

Some weeks later Aiba sat together with Sho and Jun. He looked from to the other and back. They yelled at each other, cried, yelled some more, cried some more, and so one. One hour later they stopped and none of them said a word.

“Are you done?” Aiba asked.

Both nodded at him. “Good. What do you think now? Is it possible to change the situation between the both of you?”

“I still can’t believe that you didn’t tell me about your ability, but I had been a real jerk in past, so I guess it’s just normal that you didn’t talk with me. And I am really sorry for everything, Jun. You are my brother, and you’ve always been,” Sho said.

Jun smiled at him. “You know, Oh-chan told me how afraid he had been that you’d kill him right after the accident. He told me how much you cared about my health. Let’s move on together, okay?”

Sho nodded at him, and Aiba smiled about it.

~~~

Almost half a year had passed since the accident. Aiba was about to go for a walk with Haro, when his phone rang. “Sho, what can I do for you?”

Neither Sho nor Ohno were his patients anymore, they had become friends. Aiba couldn’t remember how many times he had talked with Jun about their ability, and how many times he and Ohno had gone fishing together. But with Sho it was something different.

Aiba’s feelings had grown, but he wasn’t confident enough to talk openly about it, and Sho didn’t make a step either, even though Jun, Ohno and Nino tried their best to get them together.

“Ah, Masaki, I wanted to ask if you accompany me to Tokyo?” Sho asked. His voice sounded nervous.

“Yes, I come along,” Aiba agreed immediately. Not only because he wanted to share time with Sho, but also because he wanted to visit Koko. In the end she was the one who broke that vicious circle.

~~~

Two days later they stood at the grave and Aiba placed a Guinea-hen flower on there. It was already getting colder, at least in Tokyo, and Aiba could feel his hands getting cold. He was glad that they didn’t have this cold weather on their island, but sometimes he enjoyed it – like today. He didn’t know why, but this weather made his mood rising.

“You know Sho-chan, we could go for a walk in the city. I want to see the enormous lighting,” Aiba chirped. He always hated it, but maybe even he had changed, without realising it.

“Sho-chan? Are you nuts?” Sho said, his hands on his hips.

Aiba’s smile faded. “Sorry,” he murmured, earning a laugh from Sho. “Hey, you fooled me,” Aiba pouted. “So, let’s go.” He took Sho’s hand in his and pulled him along the road.

Not before they reached the crowded street Aiba realized that he was still holding Sho’s hand, who didn’t even complain about it. Aiba could feel Sho’s fingers intertwined with his. Sho’s hand was warm and soft against his. His thumb brushed over Aiba’s back of the hand. Aiba smiled widely, his cheeks flushing.

Aiba heard laughter and turned. He was sure it was Koko’s voice singing excitedly about her father’s new happiness, but probably he misheard it.

“What’s wrong,” Sho asked, his other hand brushing Aiba’s cheek.

“Nothing, I just thought I heard a voice,” Aiba said.

Sho looked around. “Here are a lot of voices around us.”

Aiba wanted to say that there were even a lot of shadows, but he didn’t care about it now. They pulled on his energy, but Aiba had the feeling that no one was able to bring him down at the moment. “I thought of a special voice, but probably I misheard it.”

“And if is Koko, I want her to know that I am happy now,” Sho whispered, leaning closer to Aiba till their bodies touched.


End file.
